


Sweet Tooth

by destimushi



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, Blogging, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Food, Food Kink, Food Porn, Food Sex, M/M, Minor Destiel, Oral Sex, Sabriel - Freeform, Smut, first sabriel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 23:59:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 53,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2792432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destimushi/pseuds/destimushi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel is the owner of Tricks and Treats, a candy shop that carries flavours from around the world. </p><p>Sam is the star and founder of What Does the Moose Say, an alternative food and video blog catered towards people with special dietary needs. </p><p>When Gabriel is forced to sell the shop, he soon finds himself a different way to satisfy his sweet tooth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at a Sabriel fic! There is VERY VERY VERY MINOR Destiel later on in the story, so very minor though, that if you're hoping for a Destiel parallel then this is not the story for you. 
> 
> Jessica Moore/Benny Lafitte is another minor couple in the story, again it's not a focus, they barely get any screen time, so if you're looking for a more Jessica heavy story, this is also not for you. 
> 
> That being said, I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I LOVED writing it, and once again thanks to my love betas for catching all my stupid silly mistakes and making this a much more enjoyable read for everyone! 
> 
> Cheers!

“Those bastards!” Gabriel Novak cursed loudly as he crumpled the thick sheet of paper in his hands, crushing the letter with a vengeance. He glared at the wrinkled ball and threw it across the small office, watching without satisfaction as it bounced off the wall to land neatly into the waste basket. 

The slight man sank into his chair, his heart heavy as dirty blonde hair fell into his eyes. He didn’t care, didn’t even have the energy to brush the silken locks off his face as he just sat and stared at his hands. Minutes, maybe even hours passed before Gabriel pushed himself to his feet, and out of his organically organized back office.

Bright amber eyes scanned the shop, his love and passion built on years of sweat, tears and yes, even blood, after all, custom shelves were a bitch to make. He walked along those shelves full of candies, sweets, treats and chocolates from all around the world, his fingers trailing along shiny packaging printed in Japanese and neatly arranged bars that looked like they belonged in a 50’s corner store. 

Silently he moved onto the next aisle, and gazed upon bottles – glass and aluminium – of sweetened drinks, some carbonated, some not, some sweetened with fruit juices, others pumped full of pure, good old fashioned, tooth rotting sugar. 

The colourful light bulbs Gabriel had installed all those years ago bathed the shop in swatches of colour, bright and colourful, cheery and inviting. He trudged on, his fingers still trailing, into the bulk sweets section. Long tubes of heavy duty plastic were pregnant with jelly beans of every colour and flavour imaginable. Underneath the jelly beans were a splash of M&M’s, in every flavour Hershey’s had ever released. 

Gabriel chewed on his bottom lip as he walked back behind the cash register, the counter covered in bite sized, easy to grab loose candies. He stared at the shelf behind the counter and his heart seized; here was where his most prized creations were laid out. 

There were jars upon jars of candies that he had cooked up in his own lab, where the sky was the limit. Some flavours, like the Eggnog Chews, just in time for Christmas, was a huge hit. Others such as the Durian Explosion was not so much, but it wasn’t the money that motivated Gabriel, rather the look of wonder or surprise (not all of them good) in people’s eyes when they tasted his creations that drove the man out of bed every morning. 

And now he was going to lose it all.

It was hard enough running a candy shop through the economic crash, but Gabriel managed. It was a logistic nightmare trying to keep prices reasonable and still import quality candy from around the world, but Gabriel scraped by with enough for rent and after years of saving, even a down payment for a small modest condo. But now the city wanted him to give up his store – his life – to some hot shot developer to make room for “an attempt at boosting the economy” by bringing in a “massive development that would benefit all businesses?” That’s just a big pile of stinking horse shit, and all parties involved knew it. 

They wanted to build another shopping centre. A massive conglomerate that leached off the backs of hard working men, and crushed small business owners like himself. Sure, they were going to offer Gabriel compensation, a measly half a million dollars in return for something Gabriel had built from the ground up, had kept alive and thriving for well over a decade. It sat heavy in his stomach and left a sour taste in his mouth no amount of Scope could wash out. 

The chime of a soft bell brought Gabriel out of his heavy thoughts, he watched the front door swing open and shivered as a gust of cold air brushed against his bare arms. A man in his late 50’s walked in with two cups of coffee, he handed Gabriel one with a smile.

“Hey trickster,” the man called out in greeting.

“Hey yourself, Samuel.” Gabriel smiled at the nickname, accepting the coffee with one hand and reaching behind him for a handful of Eggnog Chews with the other. Samuel accepted the candy with a nod, pocketing all but one.

“Did you get the letter?” Samuel’s smile faded as he unwrapped the home made parchment wrapper, and popped the soft candy in his mouth.

“...Yeah, you did too huh?” Gabriel took a sip of his coffee and sighed contently. Three sugars and two creams, just the way he liked it. 

“They’re getting more insistent.” Samuel chewed slowly, enjoying the trickle of sweetness down his throat. “Their offer went up too, it’s getting hard to say no.” 

“Yeah, mine did too, a lousy ten grand,” Gabriel spat out acidly. “Do they really think money can solve all their problems?” 

“They do, and it does. I’m getting on with age Gabe, I can’t keep this up. Missouri next door is also thinking about selling, closing up shop and retiring early. It’s not so bad you know.” 

Sadness blanketed the two men as they let the silence hang between them. Gabriel took another sip of his coffee, wishing the warmth could chase away the coldness that gripped his guts. He studied the man standing across from him, his face was lined with age, his eyes weary, and he looked ready to finally throw in the towel. 

“I hear you,” Gabriel whispered. “I just...if you and Missouri close shop, then it’s the end for Tricks and Treats too.”

“I know...I’m sorry.” Samuel hung his head in shame. Guilt ate at Gabriel.

“Don’t you dare,” Gabriel’s voice hardened, but underneath the hardness was a trace of tenderness Gabriel didn’t know he felt towards the man. “It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. It’s a good deal, you should take it and enjoy life some.” He reached out and gripped Samuel’s arm, the flesh beneath Gabriel’s fingers was soft with age, but still hard with a lifetime of hard work and good foundation. 

There was a look of relief behind those tired eyes as Samuel looked up, he moved his hand and covered Gabriel’s fingers, giving him a long squeeze. “You too Gabe. You’re still so young, take the money and start new, you never know what life will have in store for you.” 

“Yeah yeah, you just take care you old goat.” Gabriel forced a smile before pulling his hand gently from under Samuel’s. “Thanks for the coffee, I’m going to miss this brew, and those delicious caramel banana walnut muffins.” 

“You know where I live, I’ll bake them fresh just for you.” Samuel’s voice shook, but he managed a smile before ducking back out into the cold December evening. 

The door swung shut with another soft chime. Gabriel stared at the retreating silhouette for a long moment before walking around the counter and locking up. He swung the hand crafted sign on the door around, large letters painted in red that spelled CLOSED plastered against the glass. 

He walked to the back once more, turning to let his eyes roam over the neat shelves and colourful décor before flicking off the lights. A velvet blanket of darkness settled over the shop, turning vivid colour into gentle monochrome. With trembling fingers Gabriel reached into the waste basket and pulled out the crumpled letter. He smoothed the rich, cream coloured paper flat and laid it on his desk. 

Suddenly he felt calm, all his anger and fears seemingly disappeared into thin air. Gabriel smiled, a sad smile that dulled the glow of his golden eyes, and picked up the phone. 

===

“Thanks for coming!” Gabriel said cheerfully as he handed the young woman her change. “Come back Friday and I’ll have those Kit Kat bars for ya.” 

“Thanks Gabe.” The girl pocketed her change and turned to leave, then stopped. “I’m really sorry to see you go…”

“I’m sure your dentist isn’t, now go on, get outta here.” 

The girl laughed and shook her head as she pushed opened the door and stepped into the bright afternoon sun. Gabriel’s smile faltered, then fell as the door chimed closed. Claire was a regular, he practically watched her grow from the chubby toddler into the slim young teen, how she didn’t get fat eating all those candies was a mystery Gabriel didn’t like dwelling on.

It had been two weeks since Gabriel made the phone call that sealed the fate of Tricks and Treats. The contracts were drawn, the t’s were crossed and the i’s dotted, all that was left was for Gabriel to sell off as much stock as possible before closing shop at the end of the month. 

Yet he was still taking requests, still filling foreign orders, still chasing down those wasabi flavoured Kit Kats that Claire liked so much. Gabriel left the front of the store, counting on his sharp hearing to know when customers came in, and ducked into his small but tightly packed stock room. 

His eyes roamed the shelves as he swallowed barely contained panic, before settling down to continue inventory. Most of his stock were hard candies that would last forever, those he could keep for himself and give away as gifts, however the chocolates would have to go. Gabriel’s eyes landed on a small case of Dark Rum & Raisin Tim Tams and smiled. He scooped up the box and counted the contents before heading out, leaving a sign indicating he’d be back in ten minutes as he locked the front door. 

The crisp afternoon air cut through his thin jacket as Gabriel half jogged down the block to an old used book store. He looked up at the familiar sign, and ran his fingers along the bottom of the weathered wood before pushing into the store. 

The musk of well loved pages greeted Gabriel, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, reminiscing his countless evenings spent here, having tea and cookies with the owner, Missouri Moseley. Gabriel was going to miss this place almost as dearly as his own shop. 

“Gabriel, is that you child?” A deep, rich female voice called out.

“Not a child anymore Missouri!” Gabriel shouted as he navigated to the back of the store. “How did you know it was me? Didn’t know you installed cameras.”

“No cameras, I just know.” The plump woman grinned as Gabriel put down the box and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. They clung onto each other longer than usual as thoughts passed unspoken between them. When Missouri finally pulled back, she patted Gabriel’s cheek affectionately, the gesture earning her a famous Gabriel nose twitch. 

“I brought you something,” Gabriel reached down and pulled out a package of Tim Tams. “I recall you enjoying this particularly weird flavour.” 

“Oh you darling boy.” Missouri took the package from Gabriel and squinted at the writing. “Yes! You can’t find these at the store. How much do I owe you?”

“Really? I’m wounded.” Gabriel pouted and clutched at his heart, a look of feigned hurt etched deeply in his brows. “These are the last of them, on the house.” 

Missouri clucked disapprovingly, but she accepted the gift and tucked the box away behind her desk. “I’m so sorry, boy.”

“Shh, don’t you start too,” Gabriel warned. “Like I told Samuel, it’s not your fault. Enjoy the money, it’ll make a nice retirement fund, and you can maybe do that psychic stuff you’ve been wanting to do. All that palm reading mumbo jumbo you like so much.”

“Don’t jest about things you don’t understand,” Missouri chided, though her tone was soft. “Maybe, but this-” She pointed around her. “Was my life. It’s so hard…” Her voice trailed off as she began fidgeting with the hem of her sleeve. 

“If you need help packing, or anything else you know where to find me.” Gabriel gave Missouri one last squeeze before leaving. 

“I know, thanks Gabe.” Gabriel waved but did not turn around before stepping out of the store. 

“Before you offer anyone else help you really need to start packing your own shit,” Gabriel muttered to himself as he made his way back to Tricks and Treats. The sidewalk was busy with throngs of people, some rushing toward their destinations while others took a more leisurely pace, enjoying the afternoon sun and it’s warmth against the biting December cold. 

“...It was absolutely amazing! So decadent and it was HEALTHY!” 

Gabriel looked from side to side until he located the source of the shrill, excited voice. He spotted a blonde woman, in her early twenties maybe, talking excitedly to her friend. He shook his head as he continued on his way.

“How can chocolate cake be healthy? You’re so full of it Becky.”

“No, for real! You have GOT to try it. It’s made with BLACK BEANS! The recipe is on ‘What Does the Moose Say!’”

“I knew it, you’re absolutely obsessed with that guy!” The brunette standing next to the woman with the blonde hair, whom Gabriel safely assumed was her exasperated friend, said with a roll of her eyes.

“OH my god, Sam is just so dreamy, and he can COOK. I need to marry him if it’s the last thing…”

The conversation faded into the background as Gabriel opened up shop once more. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something about that conversation intrigued him. Healthy chocolate cake? Cake made with black beans? What disgusting concoction was this? And what the hell is a “What Does the Moose Say?” Is it a play on that stupid song with the fox? 

Gabriel didn’t have time to ponder as a string of customers poured into the shop. He waved at Meg and Ruby, both regulars, and made small talk with a group of young teens he’d never seen before. Business was good, but this was his last week here, so he’d best make the most of it. 

===

“Hmm I wish y’all could smell this. The aroma of roasted garlic is simply amazing.” 

The large man with the deep, rumbling voice laced with a hint of southern drawl grinned into the camera. In his mitten covered hands was a molten baking sheet lined with parchment paper, on the tray was two rows of roasted zucchini halves, the pieces all laid out neatly alongside each other. The squash halves were slightly hollowed, each decorated with slices of cherry tomatoes, sliced green olives and crumbled feta cheese, all baked to perfection.

Eyes that seemed to change colours constantly fluttered closed as he took an exaggerated sniff, a long moan escaped those perfectly plump lips before he opened his eyes once more and winked into the camera. 

“Now all that’s left is plating, and you will blow your guests away! Now this isn’t 100% Paleo, but if you omit the feta cheese then you’re good to go!” 

Carefully the man put the tray down on two prepared heat mats and shed his oven mitts. With two forks he carefully lifted the zucchinis from the tray onto a large plain square plate, laying them side by side, forming a neat, organized row. When all the pieces were laid down, he cut into a soft squash with a fork and speared himself a mouthful. The noise that came from his throat was probably illegal somewhere in the world. 

“And there you have it, simple, easy garlic roasted zucchinis with a twist. Potlucks will never be the same, and thank you for tuning in for another episode of What Does the Moose Say!” 

“ANNNND cut! That was awesome Sam!” A brightly painted finger pressed on the red button on the camera and cut the video recording. 

“Thanks Jess. Now get your ass over here and help me eat this while it’s still hot!” Sam waved a fork at his friend and assistant as he fed himself another mouthful. 

Jessica shoved Sam’s large frame over and hovered over the plate, her fork already poking as she made away with a whole zucchini half. Carefully she blew on the vegetable before taking a tentative bite, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she chewed. 

“God, a girl can get used to this,” she moaned around a second mouthful, barely finishing her piece as she reached for a second. 

“Good, there’s three pounds worth, we can call it an early dinner if you crack open the wine,” Sam said around a mouthful of zucchini and tomato and cheese. 

“Tsk, really? You’re asking the girl to open the wine? Classy Sammy.” 

“Hey, I’m all about that equality,” Sam joked but reached for the unopened bottle of Merlot sitting on the counter. Jessica dug around the drawer until she found the opener and handed it to Sam with a smirk. 

She watched as his forearm bulged and flexed with each twist of the screw into the cork and looked away. As much as Jessica hated objectifying anyone, she couldn’t help but appreciate the specimen that was Sam. He was tall, hovering just over six foot four, his shoulders were broad, his arms, chest and back well formed with rippling muscle barely contained in his nerdy t-shirts. His waist tapered into a narrow V, sometimes when he raised his arms Jessica could just see the top of his hip lines that connected with, what she could only imagine, were well defined thighs and...Oh God she was staring! 

Sam was busy pouring the rich, red liquid into two wine tumblers, and failed to notice the faint blush on Jessica’s cheeks. Despite her physical attraction to her best friend, Jessica was never interested in him on a romantic level. Sam had batted for the other team ever since she could remember, she used to be bitter about it, but now she just wanted her friend to find happiness. 

Well, MORE happiness, because she’d never seen him happier as he concluded yet another webisode for his ever growing on-line cooking show. 

“So viewership had gone up since you posted that black bean cake recipe.” Jessica grabbed her wine tumbler and the giant plate of zucchini as she moved the party to the dinner table. Sam followed with napkins and their forks and two serving plates. 

“Oh yeah? That’s unbelievable! How many subscribers are we at?” Sam sipped his wine before reaching for more zucchinis. The pro and con of making a video was the leftovers, and Sam was not one to waste food. Ever.

Jessica gave Sam her well practised bitch-face and pulled out her phone. With a few swipes and taps on the screen she pulled up the “What Does the Moose Say” YouTube channel and checked the subscribers. Her eyes popped. “Holy shit on a stick. You’re something like a few hundred subscribers from hitting a million!” 

“No fucking way…” Sam was equally stunned as he yanked the phone out of Jessica’s hand. His eyes glued on the little number on the screen and his heart threatened to jump out of his ribcage. “This..wow…”

“At this rate, you’ll hit a million in no time!” Jessica squealed excitedly. It was out of character for her to lose her composure, but Sam’s success was ultimately her success as well, since they’d been working together as a team for nearly five years, nurturing Sam’s food blog into a video blog and ultimately, into the internet sensation that is was today. 

“We’ll need to plan something huge for this! Oh God Jess, I don’t even know what to do!” 

“We’ll think of something, besides, you might not hit a million until end of January. Christmas holidays could go either way for us. Do you have the Yule log recipe ready for next week’s Bakeathon episode?”

“It’s close, the cake is still a little dry. Not using regular flour is tough, but I’ll get it done in time, don’t you worry.” 

“I’m not worried, you always pull through.”

“Heh, thanks Jess. But oh my God, we should celebrate!”

“Oh yeah? What do you have in mind?”

“I heard about this candy shop called...Tricks and Treats or something, it’s supposed to have all sorts of weird and wacky sweets and candies from around the world. Want to go find some seriously weird shit to celebrate?”

“And here I thought you ran a HEALTHY food blog.”

“Hey, 80/20. It’s all about balance. Besides you know I always get the best inspiration from the weirdest stuff.”

Jessica laughed, the sound light yet throaty. She grabbed her phone back from Sam and checked the time. “We’ll, it’s only three in the afternoon, if we hurry here we can still go before the store closes.” 

“Sounds like a plan.” Sam raised his wine tumbler and clinked glasses with Jessica, before diving back into his mountain of zucchinis.


	2. Chapter 2

The bell chimed just as Gabriel came out of the stock room, a clipboard tucked under arm as he finally finished inventory. It was Tuesday afternoon, and he’d barely managed to set up the last minute sale items at the front of the store. 

Just three more days. 

He wouldn’t, couldn’t allow himself to dwell on that thought, it was too depressing. Gabriel forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes as he greeted the couple that walked through the door together. Gabriel couldn’t help but notice just how tall the man was, and how absolutely lovely was the girl he had with him, they made a striking couple. 

“Welcome to Tricks and Treats.”

“Wow, this is unreal…” The tall man exclaimed as he beelined for the shelf of Indian sweets on sale for a tenth of it’s regular price. Those things had a limited shelf life and needed to go. 

“Indian sweets, imported directly from India,” Gabriel walked up next to the giant and picked up a box lined with miniature apples. “Kaju Apples, just like Kaju Katli, but well, shaped like apples.” 

“They’re so pretty,” chimed the beautiful blonde. She ran one perfectly manicured finger down the shiny packaging before picking up another box. “These are so pretty I don’t think I can bring myself to eat them!” 

“Like the exotic stuff do we? You should come check out this here too.” Gabriel caught the lady’s eye before leading her to the adjacent table. Rows upon rows of skewers of red berries in plastic wrap lined the table. “Have you ever had hawthorn berries?” 

“Hawthorn? No…” 

“They’re sour as hell, but the Chinese, those clever bastards, cover them in sugar, and suddenly you have something that’s truly sweet and sour.” Gabriel picked up a skewer and handed it to the girl. “They also make them into fruit leather and fruit chips, both delicious, however this stuff on a stick is absolutely divine.” 

Gabriel watched with sadness as the young woman grabbed her boyfriend’s jacket sleeve, yanking him over to where they were. This was the part of the job that Gabriel had loved the most, watching people’s eyes light up when they found something new in the shop. The same energy that he used to feed off of now made his chest ache and he just couldn’t keep up the fake smile any longer. 

“I’ll leave you lovebirds to it then,” Gabriel cleared his throat politely. “If you need anything just ask.”

“Oh we’re not...I mean, we’re just friends.” The tall man smiled bashfully as he looked up at Gabriel with deep grey blue eyes that made Gabriel’s breath hitch just a notch. 

Gabriel said nothing, only winked before turning away. 

Sam watched the shopkeeper turn from them and saw the slump of his shoulders, how could he look so sad working in a place like this? Before Sam could dwell on that thought Jessica was already pulling him deeper into the store, oohing and aahing at all the foreign things, and exclaiming over candies from her childhood. 

“Oh my god Sam, look at this stuff!” Jessica waved the hawthorn berries excitedly as she dashed to the back of the drink aisle, picking up old school bottles of Coca Cola. 

“Slow down Jess!” Sam could barely keep up as he turned and grabbed a basket, dropping in the boxes he was clutching, before following his friend. 

There were just so many flavours of soda pops and juices and coffees and teas that it was near panic inducing trying pick and choose. There were definitely a lot of funky drink bottles covered in Japanese, and some bottles contained liquids so neon Sam was afraid to read the ingredients. “Seriously Jess, we don’t need Coke-”

“But the bottles!”

“We’re not going to drink the bottles! Pick something more fun at least, like this.” Sam bent over and picked up a bottle of...Pepsi White?

“What is that?”

“Lemme see.” Sam poured over the writing on the bottle, and finally found the English sticker. “OH gross, yogurt Pepsi…so this stuff tastes like...yogurt and coke?” 

“That sounds so gross I don’t even.”

“We’re getting it.”

“...I’m not helping you drink that.” 

“Fine, you’re not getting any if it’s good either.”

“I think I’m okay with that.” 

Jessica rolled her eyes at Sam before making her way further down the drinks, leaving Sam behind to marvel at the various bottles of curry lemonade, celery pop and kimchi drink.  
“Fun stuff eh?” Sam jumped at the voice and turned to look into golden eyes filled with glee. 

“I don’t even know what to make of this…” Sam waved a large hand at the rows of drinks. 

“Well you can always be adventurous and try one of everything.” Gabriel picked up a bottle with a crazy GARLIC JUICE label. Sam scrunched up his nose and gagged. 

“Truth is I don’t even really drink pop, or juice really. But I figure if I WERE to drink it, might as well make it the fun stuff.” 

“Well, we have fun, just make sure you make up your mind before Friday.” Gabriel put the bottle back on the shelf, the glint in his eyes replaced by sadness once more. 

“Oh? How come?”

“Oh, didn’t see the sign? I guess I need to make it more obvious. We’re closing, everything’s on sale.” 

“Oh what…” Suddenly it all made sense. “But we just found you…”

“Sorry kiddo.” Gabriel smiled at Sam, a genuine smile this time, but it lacked his usual good humour. 

The couple left with a large bag of the most random things Gabriel had ever seen two people buy. They practically bought one of everything on display, Gabriel had to cock his eyebrow at the tall man when he rung up a bottle of that delicious Garlic Juice. The small, shy smile that pulled at the man’s lips made Gabriel’s heart skip a beat. 

When they finally left, Gabriel went back to his office. He had about six months’ worth of paperwork to get through before his meeting with his accountant by the end of the week. Normally this wouldn’t take him more than a day, however, with all the work he’d been putting into setting up the displays and taking inventory, his days just seemed to slip away from him. Armed with pencil, calculator and Excel Gabriel got to work.

Only his usual needle sharp focus would not come, instead he kept on thinking about the moose of a man that came in earlier. He thought of his easy grace despite his build and wondered what it would be like to have all that weight on top of him. 

Gabriel chuckled to himself, of all the men he would have loved to flirt with, he missed the opportunity to dirty banter with THIS one. Even if the man didn’t swing that way, it would still have been fun to coax more embarrassed smiles out of him, it’s not like Gabriel needed the repeat business anymore. But oh well, no point crying over spilled milk.

===

Friday came around way too soon. The day rolled by at an alarming rate as Gabriel packed up the last of his inventory into boxes. Some of these boxes he’d be shipping to a grocery store that was willing to take on some exotic sweets for a bargain bulk price, the rest of the hard candies and jelly beans Gabriel was taking home with him. 

It felt strange having the shelves and the plastic containers empty. Gabriel gazed around his shop and an overwhelming wave of nausea knocked the breath out of him. He sat down in his empty office, the furniture moved out the day before, and took deep, calming breaths to will away the panic that threatened to surface. 

What was he going to do come Saturday morning? Where would he go? What about Monday? Tuesday? The rest of the week, month? A soft chime drifted into the office, Gabriel looked up through the open door and pushed himself to his feet.

“Hey Claire,” he called out before rubbing a hand across his eyes, wiping away the ghost of a tear. 

“Gabe…” Claire looked around her in shock, taking in the empty containers on the wall and the empty shelves. The look in her eyes was crushing, like she’d discovered again for the first time that Santa Claus wasn’t real. “It’s really gone.”

“Yeah kiddo,” Gabriel answered softly as he walked behind the empty cash register counter. “But I have your Kit Kats.” He leaned down and pulled out the last box of candy in the store, a full box filled with green little individually packed Wasabi flavoured Kit Kat bars. 

“Oh wow, you actually got them!” 

“Of course I did, wouldn’t want to disappoint my favourite customer now.” Gabriel pushed the box across the counter and closed the lid. “On the house.” 

“Really?!”

“Yeah, it’s a gift from me to you, my most loyal customer.” Gabriel looked down at the young girl fondly, remembering her scrunched up face the first time he fed her a Toxic Waste candy. It was the first trick he’d ever played on a customer. 

“Thanks Gabe!” Claire’s excitement chased away the haunted look in her eyes, her smile was bright as she tucked the box under one skinny arm. She looked up at him, and suddenly Gabriel didn’t feel so sad anymore. 

“Run along now you, I gotta close up shop here soon and you have some serious chocolate eating to do. Just try not to ruin your dinner!”

Claire beamed at Gabriel, and they both knew that she wasn’t going to eat any dinner that night. Gabriel came around the counter and gave the girl a hug and a shove out the door. He watched her run across the street, and only when her tiny silhouette disappeared around the corner did Gabriel take off the sign on the door. 

He looked at the crudely painted letters and the tiny little candies drawn all over and sighed. A dark sedan pulled up and parked right outside the little shop. Gabriel shaded his eyes against the late afternoon sun and squinted into the glare. It was the real estate agent. 

This was it.

Gabriel’s eyes swept over the store one last time, in his mind’s eye it was still gaudily decorated with bright lights and funky candy wrappers. He looked over at the shelf behind the counter and saw again both failed and successful experiments, saw again the looks of pure joy and surprise when kids and adults tasted his concoctions. 

There was a knock on the glass door before the smartly dressed agent pushed her way into the shop. She made small talk, but Gabriel barely heard her, barely saw her outstretched hand as she waited patiently for Gabriel to hand over the keys. 

===

“CASSIEEEEE!” 

Castiel Novak froze mid-writing as his head whipped up to find his older brother leaning against his office door, a bottle of half finished Jack Daniels in hand. “Gabe?! What are you doing drunk at-” He checked his watch. “Six on a Friday night?” 

“Why not?” Hic. “Not like I’ve got anything else to do.” Hic. “Ever again.” Gabriel swayed on his feet as he righted himself and sauntered into the neatly organized office. 

Castiel shot out of his chair and rushed to catch his older brother as he fell sideways, lowering his jell-o form gently into the leather couch. Castiel grabbed the bottle out of Gabriel’s hand and waved at his secretary. 

“Hannah, could you get me some water?” 

“Sure thing Mr.Novak.” She looked at Gabriel and frowned before leaving the office. 

Castiel turned his attention back to his brother, one hand rubbing up and down his back. Gabriel reached for the bottle, but Castiel batted his hand away. When Hannah came back with a bottle of water he gave her a nod and a small smile of thanks. She laid a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, worry in her eyes, but said nothing before turning to leave the brothers in peace. 

“Here, drink this,” Castiel cooed as he cracked open the bottle and pressed it to Gabriel’s lips. The older man took a sip and spat it out.

“This isn’t whiskey, you’re trying to poison me with your stupid...responsibleness!” Gabriel thrashed about, pushing the water away from him sharply, causing the liquid to spill on himself and Castiel. 

“You’ll thank my stupid responsibleness come morning.” Castiel pushed the bottle back into Gabriel’s hand and waited patiently until Gabriel began drinking. 

“Don’t you fuckin’ look at me,” Gabriel slurred, “with those damned blue eyes of yours like that. Stupid blue, fucking eyes.” 

“You’re pissed at the colour of my eyes?”

“Yes, and your stupid tie, and your stupid shoes.” 

“Finish your water, I’ll wrap it up here and take you home.”

“And your stupid trench coat. And your stupid voice. And I have my car!”

Castiel ignored Gabriel’s drunken rambling as he pulled out his cell phone and made a few changes to his calendar. Quickly he walked over to his desk and saved his work on the laptop, closed up the file he was working on and grabbed his tanned trench coat. He gave the garment a long look, as if apologizing for his brother’s harsh words, before throwing it over his shoulders. 

The drive home was fought with peril as Gabriel tried to hug Castiel, then punch him, then pull on his hair. Gabriel sang, cried, shouted, then sang some more as Castiel felt the start of a pounding headache behind his eyes. The younger man looked over at his brother and felt the sadness that oozed out of him, he knew shutting down the store would take it’s toll on Gabriel, but Castiel did not expect this. 

Castiel dragged and pulled Gabriel out of the car and took his keys to let them both into Gabriel’s building. He had to practically hold the drunken man up in the elevator, and was relieved when he finally dumped Gabriel into bed. 

Gabriel’s apartment was an extension of his store, organically organized was how Gabriel liked to describe it. Castiel found his way to the kitchen, made sure Gabriel had lots of water by his bed and a garbage can just incase, before turning off the lights and leaving. 

The room spun as Gabriel laid in bed, one arm draped across his half lidded eyes. He waited until Castiel was gone before pushing himself out of bed to go puke in the bathroom, when he was done he stumbled into the living room and found his half bottle of bourbon. Gabriel looked at the amber liquid and against better judgement, cracked it open and took a swig. 

It was so much easier being drunk, and as the alcohol coursed through his veins the spinning stopped and Gabriel was hit by a wave of giggles. And he’ll be damned, but he was horny. 

With the grace of a newborn calf Gabriel stumbled into the den and turned on his laptop. While trying to find some porn he knew he had tucked away on his hard drive Gabriel noticed the search result of something he had been looking up the night before.

What Does the Moose Say? - A YouTube cooking show dedicated to eating healthy. Now you can finally have your cake AND eat it too!

Gabriel squinted at the description and clicked on the link. His eyes popped when the gorgeous giant that came in the store a few days ago popped up on his screen. The video began playing, the man was making some sort of a rolled cake, but Gabriel wasn’t looking at the food, he was too busy trying to navigate the cocktail of irrational emotions going through his muddled brain. 

He’s got such large hands. Why is his hair so long? It looks soft, and silky. He’s got dimples! Why is he making cake if he’s supposed to be healthy? Wait, he bought candy, he’s a fucking imposter! Oh but those lips. He has a dopey smile. God he’s so hot. But he’s a fucking fake! 

Gabriel giggled and pouted and shouted at the man in the video. When it came to an end Gabriel scrolled down and began typing a message. He didn’t know what he was typing, and didn’t care, before hitting send. 

The room spun once more, this time Gabriel didn’t have the energy to stand up, instead he laid his head on his arms. Just for a moment, just until the room stopped spinning.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So very sorry for the late update! Holidays are crazy and I'm almost looking forward to it all being over so life can go back to structure and smut writing!

“Morning Sam.” Jessica yawned as she walked into the living room, a coffee in hand. When she got no reply from the hunched over form sitting at the dinner table, she frowned and sat down in the adjacent chair, her toe nudging Sam’s leg. “What’s up?”

“N-Nothing,” Sam replied quickly, as if caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. He tried to shy the laptop away from Jessica, but it only made her more aware that he was trying to hide something.

“Bull, what are you doing? You know I know you watch porn right?” She squirmed in her seat, trying to get a better look at the screen. It looked like a wall of text. 

“It’s not that, it’s nothing, stop!” Sam turned the laptop screen away from his best friend completely, trying to close the lid in vain.

“That, Sam Winchester, is not a ‘nothing’ face, now show me before I kick your ass!” She was practically on him, one hand pushed beneath the lid of the laptop, preventing Sam from closing and turning it off. 

Finally, with her ass seated squarely in Sam’s lap, Jessica managed to wrestle the laptop from his hands and pushed the screen back. Sam was checking up on comments from their new video, a gluten free yule log with buttercream recipe. Her eyes scanned the page quickly, seeing but not reading the usual comments until her eyes fell on a particularly long post.

She turned and raised a brow at Sam, noting the deep blush on his cheeks and the way his eyes kept darting between her and the laptop, before turning back to read the comment. With the passing of each word, each sentence, and oh dear Lord each paragraph Jessica’s eyes popped wider. 

When she finally looked at Sam again she could barely contain the laughter bubbling from her throat and her eyes bulged like a goldfish. 

“Oh my god. What is this, we’ve NEVER gotten anything like this!” She pushed herself off of Sam’s lap and fell back into her own chair. “Is this who I THINK it is?!” 

“I...can only imagine so.” Sam gave Jessica his best bitch-face before pulling the laptop back in place, in front of him. “The email pretty much confirms it.” He highlighted the email of the sender and turned the screen to Jessica. 

“info@tricksandtreats.com huh, yup, oh dear.” Jessica chewed on the inside of her mouth to keep from laughing. It was obvious the sender of the message was drunk. “If I remember correctly, he was kind of cute, not your usual type though.” 

“Shut up Jess.” Sam was blushing furiously now, his bitch-face becoming even bitchier. 

“What, judging from that message there he’s definitely got the hots for you,” Jessica teased as she took another sip of her coffee.

“He was obviously drunk.”

“Drunk men are the most honest,” she countered.

“Yeah...well, just shut up.”

“...Oh my God Sam, you like him don’t you?!”

“N-No! I don’t even know the guy!”

“Yeah but you think he’s cute, otherwise you wouldn’t be blushing like a schoolgirl right now.”

“What no I-oh what the hell, yeah maybe he’s kinda cute.”

“HA! I knew it. You’re so shallow,” Jessica teased, the twinkle in her eyes indicating she was very much kidding.

“Oh, and you’re not. You even said he was cute,” Sam bit back, his ears warm with embarrassment. 

“Hey, it’s not my dimples he was gushing on about.” Jessica smirked at Sam and took a sip of her coffee. “Though, I’m not sure how I feel about that last bit there, I mean, just because we run a healthy food blog doesn’t mean we can’t let loose and eat a piece of candy once in a while.”

“Really Jessica? That’s what you’re fixated on?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“What, he basically called us frauds,” She replied with an edge to her voice. “Anyway, I think it’s best if you took that down. Frauds aside, your viewers are already asking questions about this guy.” 

Sam sighed in resignation as he moved the mouse over the remove comment button, but something made him hesitate. “Hey Jess, want to get me a cup of that?” He pointed at her mug.

“Sure, I was going for a refill anyway.” Jessica drained her mug before heading towards the kitchen.

Sam watched her disappear around the corner before turning back and saving a copy of the message. He wasn’t sure why, but something made him want to hang onto this piece of blackmail material. Quickly he copied down the email address and deleted the message from his video, taking away all subsequent questions and replies attached to that comment as well. 

Jessica came back with his coffee and gave him a hug before leaving to do whatever it was girls did in the morning. Sam took a sip of his coffee and sank into the warmth of the bitter black liquid before pulling up his email. 

===

The bird landed on the windowsill and shook its feathers, its song was bright and cheerful as sunlight bathed it in warmth. It was rare to see a bird this late in the winter, even rarer to see a slipper fly at the bird, only to bounce off the window. 

The bird took off with a start, its song cut short. 

Gabriel groaned and pulled the covers over his head, only to dive out shortly after, gasping for air as his own flatulence made his eyes water. He sat up slowly, wincing at the bright morning light spearing through the open curtains. Gabriel closed his eyes and dug the heels of his palms into his eye sockets, trying to will away the pounding headache. His first thought was more booze, that would fix the hangover, but a tiny voice nagged him to get some aspirin and water. 

Damn Castiel and his voice of reason.

With a loud groan and a heave Gabriel fell out of bed and jammed a foot into his single slipper, he looked around for the other but gave up when he saw it laying face down next to the window. There was no way he was going near that damn window with that damn sunshine mocking him through the glass. 

The trek to the medicine cabinet felt like forever, but eventually Gabriel found the bottle of Aspirin and popped two into his mouth. It was only then that he realized he had no water. With the pills melting bitterness down his throat Gabriel stumbled into the kitchen and poured himself some water from the tap. 

What a wonderful way to start his first Saturday morning off. 

He glared at the half empty mug, but brought it to his chapped lips and sipped at the cool liquid until it was all gone. Gabriel carried the empty mug to the dinner table and sat down heavily, he remembered going to the bar, then the liquor store and buying that bottle of Jack Daniel’s. He remembered the burn of the first sip and showing up at Castiel’s office. The rest of the night was a blackout blur of bourbon and laptop and porn and stumbling back to bed. 

Gabriel gazed at the glossy finish of the mug, his eyes focused on the picture of his face printed there, it was a terrible picture of him, with his eyes half closed and his mouth open. The mug was a Christmas gift from Claire and her family from years ago, looking at it now made Gabriel’s chest sieze with a fresh wave of loss. Angrily Gabriel tore his gaze from the mug and looked around the kitchen, looking at anything that didn’t remind him of his shop. It had been years since he last had a Saturday off, he didn’t know what to do with his hands, didn’t know what to do with his day, with his life. 

Well, there was always more bourbon, Gabriel thought to himself bitterly. He knew it was a bad idea, knew that he shouldn’t do it, that he was stronger than that, but right now it didn’t matter, nothing mattered except the need to drown out the terrible silence inside his skull. 

Maybe it was the drugs finally kicking in, or maybe the water flowing through his system, but Gabriel felt slightly better, and the world didn’t spin when he shoved himself to his feet. He vaguely remember leaving the bourbon bottle in the den, maybe he’ll pull up some more porn and masturbate himself silly while he was at it. 

The laptop sat open on his desk. Gabriel sat down in front of it as he sniffed at the open bottle of bourbon. There wasn’t a lot left, maybe a shot, and Gabriel cursed his little brother once more as he remember who confiscated his escape. The bourbon barely wet his appetite, but at least there was still porn. Gabriel sank deeper into his chair, one hand idly tracing the inside of his thigh, the other navigating the mouse. Just as he was about to click on a not so discreetly named folder “faptastic” Gabriel’s eyes fell on the plus one icon for his email. 

_Dear candy shop owner,_

_My name is Sam, host and co-founder of What Does the Moose Say. You might also remember me from earlier this week when I visited your shop with my friend and business partner Jessica. We bought that deliciously disgusting garlic juice, and yes, it tasted every bit as delicious as the name suggests._

_You left a rather...interesting comment on my Yule Log with Buttercream video yesterday. It was, infact probably the most amusing message I’d gotten in a long time, if not ever. I’m very flattered that you thought so...highly...of me._

_I’d just like to say that yes, even though I run a health food blog, I still like candy, and sweets, and cakes. Once in a while I let loose and enjoy life, after all if we can’t enjoy the little things, then what are we living for? I’d like to assure you, however, that if you take a quick browse, you’ll find that all my recipes are made with organic, non-GMO, gluten free and paleo friendly ingredients._

_Please give some of them a try, I’d love to hear your feedback, see if our food is up to standard. Also, don’t knock the black bean cake till you’ve tried it!_

_Cheers,  
Sam _

Gabriel blinked at the screen and read the message again, then twice more before panic set in. Comment? What comment? He remembered nothing about going on a website and leaving any comments. Frantically Gabriel pulled up his browser history and noticed a YouTube link. With shaking fingers he clicked it, and a video loaded up with a very handsome, tall man smiling at the camera. Damn but those dimples were hard to ignore.

He didn’t watch the video though, instead Gabriel scrolled down the massive list of comments, searching for his own but to no avail. He tried looking through his own history, to see if YouTube had kept a copy of his comments, but apparently unless you posted them to your Google+ profile, those comments were not kept. 

Gabriel cursed long and colourful, uncertainty nagged at him as he read Sam’s email once more. The message was just vague enough that Gabriel could not possibly guess what he’d said. Sam was flattered that Gabriel thought so highly of him...was that sarcasm or sincerity? And why was Sam so keen on justifying why he came to the candy store? It was no-one’s business what the man did during his own personal free time.

His mouse pointer hovered over the reply button, but Gabriel was too afraid to press it. What would he say? Should he admit to being completely shitfaced when he posted his comment? Should he just apologize and play dumb? He didn’t even know what he said, how does one apologize for something one didn’t remember doing? 

Gabriel was still having his miniature melt down when a new email came through. It was from Sam. Again.

_P.S. You’re not so bad yourself candy man. ;)_

“What do you mean not so bad myself...not so bad at what?!” Gabriel muttered to himself as he read the line of text over and over, trying to pry between the letters hoping to find answers to questions he didn’t even know he had. “Dear sweet Jesus, what did you do Gabe? Why couldn’t you just watch your fucking porn and choke your chicken like a normal dude?” 

It shouldn’t have mattered to him, the comment was just one more post sent into the vacuum that was the internet, and before the day was over Gabriel’s little embarrassing outburst, whatever it was, would be washed away by something even more wacky. But it did matter, and the sandy haired man couldn’t figure out why as he paced the small den, his fingers raking through silky long locks.  
The rational part of Gabriel urged him to just forget about this whole thing and move on, but the curious, devil sitting on his shoulder made him think, made him ponder, and drove him mad with the need to know what he’d said to the near stranger with the crazy adorable dimples. Before he could talk himself out of it Gabriel sat down at his desk once more and hit the reply button.

_Hi Sam,_

_My name is Gabriel, previous owner of Tricks and Treats. I’m embarrassed to say that I have no recollection of my comment to you from last night. I was in the midst of celebrating the final closing of the candy shop and had consumed just a little too much alcohol._

_I apologize if I said anything out of line, and knowing me, I probably did. Please don’t take anything I said to heart._

_I will definitely take a look through your website and maybe try out some recipes now that I suddenly have a ton of free time and_

Gabriel frowned at the screen and glared at the blinking cursor. Why was he telling this guy that he had free time? With more force than necessary, Gabriel mashed the delete button until he was satisfied. 

_I will definitely take a look through your website, and I promise to not drunk comment on your videos anymore._

_Cheers,  
Gabriel_

Gabriel’s fingers went on autopilot and pressed the hot keys to send the message before he could chicken out, and sat there blinking at his inbox. He was insanely curious about the content of his message, but was he curious enough to ask? Did he DARE ask? 

The reply from Sam came surprisingly fast. Gabriel took a deep breath before clicking on the tiny little mail icon.

_Hey Gabriel,_

_I’m sorry to hear about the store closing. It was a real shame, since I actually really enjoyed browsing through there, and even saw some things from my childhood that I couldn’t find in normal supermarkets anymore._

_It didn’t seem like the store wasn’t doing well, why did you end up closing up shop? Of course, feel free to ignore me if the question is too personal._

_You said some...interesting things, nothing seriously offensive so please don’t worry. I was just caught off guard, and then figuring out who you were, it just surprised me that you watched my videos._

_Also really sorry about the uh last email that came through, that was my friend Jessica who sent it, please don’t take it to heart. Anyway, hopefully your hangover isn’t too bad today!_

_Cheers,  
Sam_

The headache was still present, but Gabriel was able to ignore it as he focused on the words on the screen. Sam’s message reminded Gabriel once again why he was home in flannel pants instead of at work behind the counter at his beloved shop. It wasn’t something he wanted to focus on, but it also wasn’t something he could simply ignore and forget. It was going to hurt for the next little bit every time someone brought it up, he was simply going to have to deal with it. 

_Hi Sam,_

_The city wanted to move some hot shot developer into the area and build a mall. They bought us all out. Said it’s to stimulate the economy, I call bullshit, but that’s another topic for another day._

_I’m glad you found me before we had to close, hopefully you managed to grab everything you wanted._

_As for your video, I overheard some people talk about your site one day, and decided to look it up since it sounded kinda interesting. I must have left the search results on my laptop and then my drunk self found the link and...well yeah, the rest you know._

_Jessica is the pretty blonde girl I assume? Well, her email has left me curious. What did I say to you exactly?_

_Cheers,  
Gabriel_

Gabriel took a deep breath before sending out the message. The reply came almost immediately, as if Sam was sitting right by his email, just waiting for his reply. The thought made Gabriel smile as he clicked open the email eagerly.

_The city made you close shop for a damn mall? Don’t we have enough of those as is? That’s ridiculous. How is driving out local business owners good for the economy? This is bullshit, someone needs to speak up about this._

_I did manage to get all the things I wanted, but I would have loved to get some more of those candy pouches with the dipping stick, and maybe some more Nerds. My older brother would have loved those._

_Oh wow, people actually talk about my show on the streets? That’s pretty insane! Although we are doing pretty good. But that’s so cool that you actually looked us up. Seriously, try the black bean cake, it’ll blow your mind, especially if you like chocolate cake._

_Don’t mind Jess, she’s just being a dick. Also don’t you have a copy of your comment?_

_Sam_

_Hey Sam,_

_Yeah, well they did buy us out, so it’s not like we lost everything. But giving up the shop was tough._

_Those pouches with the dipping stick...are you talking about Fun Dip? My little brother also loves Nerds! Didn’t matter what flavour, he just likes to chew on them._

_I can’t say now, but my drunk self must have liked what he saw, otherwise he wouldn’t have left a comment. I’m sure your show is as entertaining as the name, and I’ll let you know what I think when I go through some videos. I’m still skeptical, but I may give this black bean thing a try. If it tastes like ass, then you owe me cake._

_I don’t have a copy, because apparently YouTube didn’t think it was important that the commenter gets a copy of the comment. You know what it’s not a big deal...I was just a little curious._

_Cheers,  
Gabe_

_Oh, um, hey I still have some Fun Dip and a ton of Nerds leftover, if you want I could bring you some, as an apology for being a total drunk asshole? Anyway, let me know?_

_Cheers,  
Gabe_

_Hey Gabe,_

_I hope it’s okay for me to call you that? Anyway, money can’t buy everything, and I saw your shop, that’s love right there. Love and devotion, and I can’t even imagine if someone forced me to sell my show, I’d flip shit. I’m sorry man._

_I totally think you’re right, it is called Fun Dip, I just remember watching Dean when we were both little and he would always buy that for himself as a treat whenever our parents gave us spending money. He always gave the rest of the money to me though, so I could get whatever I wanted, while he sucked on the stick of candy._

_I would love to take some of it off your hands, but let me pay you. It wouldn’t feel right otherwise._

_If you’re free today, I can meet you somewhere for the candy?_

_Sam_

_Hi Sam,_

_Gabe is fine, it’s less peculiar than Gabriel. My parents let our grandmother name us, so both myself and my brothers have rather biblical names. Michael, Raphael, Castiel, and myself, Gabriel._

_I assume Dean is your brother then? Sounds like he took good care of you :)!_

_And no way am I going to accept money for this stuff. It would sit in my storage until it became radioactive so I’d rather I gave it to someone._

_I’m definitely free today, well, I’ll be pretty free until I figure out what to do with myself, so I can definitely meet you somewhere. There’s a little coffee shop next to my old shop, Campbell’s Coffee. They have the most amazing muffins and I’d love to grab one before they close up next week. I can meet you for say 2pm?_

_Gabe_

_Hey Gabe,_

_Wow, that’s a lot of aels and iels. If I know my bible, and I don’t really, I’d say you’re third in the pack?_

_Yeah, Dean’s my brother, and yeah he did take great care of me. I wouldn’t be the man I am today without him._

_Well we’ll have to work out some sort of arrangement then, because I wouldn’t feel right just taking candy from you. Although that sort of came out sounding kind of wrong, I hope you don’t drive a white van too._

_Campbell’s Coffee sounds good. See you at 2! I’ll be that really tall guy, incase you don’t see me coming._

_Peace,  
Sam_

Gabriel was grinning to himself, grinning so big his face hurt as he read over Sam’s last email. When his eyes flicked to the clock in the bottom corner of his screen the grin froze, then evaporated. It was 1:30pm, he was supposed to meet Sam in thirty minutes, and he looked and smelled like utter crap. 

The office chair nearly flipped as Gabriel exploded out of the seat. His hangover induced headache faded until Gabriel barely noticed it as he jumped into the shower and brushed his teeth and shampooed his hair all at the same time. He wasn’t sure how he’d gone from moping hungover to meeting the hunky young man with the turn-your-limbs-to-jello smile, but Gabriel was thankful that he had something to do. 

It was only after he’d stepped out into the cool December afternoon did Gabriel realize that Sam never told him what he’d written in his comment. Shit.


	4. Chapter 4

When Gabriel pushed his way into the cosy little coffee shop Sam was already sitting at a table in the back, a mug of coffee between his large hands. There was a white box sitting on the table next to him. Gabriel’s face split into a quirky grin as he waved shyly before turning to Samuel.

“The usual, old goat,” he said brightly. 

“You know, you should really show me some respect,” Samuel chided, but he couldn’t hide the affectionate smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “I might spit in your coffee.”

“Not like I’ll taste it, not with how much sugar you’re going to put in for me,” Gabriel replied cheekily. 

Samuel just shook his head as he turned to pour a mug of coffee, then added more sugar than he dared to count, before handing it over the counter along with a caramel banana walnut muffin. “On the house.” 

“Thanks, oh and I know how much you love these.” Gabriel dug into his messenger pack and pulled out a bag filled with parchment paper wrapped candies. 

“Oh…” Samuel opened the bag and gave the contents a sniff. He looked up and the glint in his eyes matched those of a ten year old boy on Christmas morning. “Oh Gabe…” 

“Just don’t eat it all in one sitting now.” Gabriel winked before taking his coffee and muffin to the table where Sam sat waiting. He flashed Sam an apologetic little smile as he settled in the empty chair. “Sorry for the wait.”

“No no, you guys are good friends?” Sam rolled the ceramic mug between his hands, enjoying the warmth. 

“Yeah, Samuel was here years before I opened Tricks and Treats. He taught me a ton about running my own business the first year when I was floundering.” Gabriel took a sip of his coffee and smiled, trust Samuel to always get the right amount of sweetness. “Him and Missouri there-” he pointed in the direction of the bookstore just next door “-they’ve both been here nearly their entire lives. It’s sad to see this all go.” 

Sam nodded as he cast his gaze into his coffee. Gabriel chewed on his bottom lip and studied Sam’s face guardedly. He didn’t want the man to pity them, but there was no pity in those eyes. Gabriel couldn’t help but notice how Sam’s eyes changed colours, almost cat like. He couldn’t help notice the straight nose, high cheekbones, and those lips, so masculine yet full, they were lips that a man could get lost kissing…

Gabriel shook his head and cleared his throat, he felt slightly guilty, objectifying Sam like all his fangirls did, but those dimples were just asking for it. 

It all happened so quickly then, Sam looked up and Gabriel was lost. Suddenly Sam’s physical attractiveness didn’t matter anymore as genuine sadness seemed to pour from every fibre of his being. Gabriel swallowed and clenched his fists on the table, afraid if he let himself relax he’d reach across and try to brush the sorrow away from those puppy dog eyes. 

“Hey, don’t look so damn sad,” Gabriel managed to say without his voice wavering. “If anyone should feel sad it’s me okay?” He tried to laugh, tried to loosen this tightness that had suddenly wrapped itself around his chest. 

“I’m sorry, I just, it just all seem so unfair,” Sam said, an edge of anger in his voice. “You can’t recreate this. This is love, this is art, this is history and culture and it’s built upon years of hard work and...and...they cannot replace this with yet another mall.” Sam’s words were like hot knives cutting into Gabriel, and it must have showed. 

“Oh God, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Of course you know all this, I don’t even know why I’m letting my mouth run with me.” Sam’s words stumbled out of his mouth as he waved his hands animatedly. A slow blush was crawling up his neck to tint his cheeks, the flustered look made Gabriel groan internally. “I mean, what do I know? My work is all online, I work out of my own kitchen. I know nothing about running a store, or the hardship that comes with it, and the love you must have for it to keep working at it day in and day out and-”

“Man you talk a lot don’t you.” Sam choked as Gabriel shoved the muffin in his mouth, the choke turned into a groan of pleasure as sweet, sticky cake fell on his tongue. “You know exactly how hard it is to run a business, to do something you love doing. You know passion, I can see it in your videos, your viewers can see it too, that’s why they love you so much. Now chew before you choke to death.”

Sam grinned with his mouth full, then took another bite before handing the muffin back to Gabriel. “That’s one fine muffin.”

“Damn right it is. Samuel is the best baker in town, though the old goat doesn’t do anything fancy anymore. I’d give my left nut for one of his strawberry strudels anytime.” Gabriel smirked and nodded in Samuel’s direction. The old man pretended to not hear the conversation and turned away to hide a smile. 

“I might have to ask him how he makes this caramel, it’s amazing,” Sam said excitedly as he swallowed and ran his tongue along his bottom lip, catching the crumbs stuck there. Gabriel swallowed and looked away. 

“I’m not giving away my secret!” Samuel yelled across the coffee shop. 

“Not even to a fellow Sam?” Sam countered with a cheeky grin.

“Oh well, in that case, let me just give away my secret to every Sam I meet.” Samuel’s reply was sour, but his grin was anything but. 

Gabriel reached into his bag and pulled out two giant plastic bags. He pushed them across the table at Sam and nodded. Sam opened each bag and gasped; there was enough Fun Dip and Nerds to feed a small country. 

“Jesus Gabe, did you bring over the whole stock?!” 

“I don’t need them, it’s just sugar.” Gabriel shrugged.

“I’m going to use these like dog treats. Ply Dean with sugar for favours. So many free oil changes,” Sam cackled and waggled an eyebrow at Gabriel. 

Gabriel laughed and took a gulp of his lukewarm coffee. Sam tucked the bags away and pushed the white box at Gabriel. “Well since you won’t take money, I figure we can do a trade.”

Gabriel cocked a brow at Sam, a look of feigned concern on his face as he cracked open the box. Inside was a small chocolate cake covered in thick chocolate frosting. “Wait, don’t tell me you baked a cake in less than half an hour?!”

“Oh no way,” Sam laughed. “When I do videos I always make extra, just incase something doesn’t turn out on screen. TV magic and all that jazz. This was a spare black bean chocolate cake I had in the freezer. I just frosted it with chocolate buttercream.”

“Dude, I thought I was going to make it?” Gabriel wrinkled his nose at the cake and reached into the box to dip a finger in the frosting. 

“Yeah well, I wanted you to taste it from the master.” Sam’s grin was cocky as hell. It did things to Gabriel’s heart. 

“Master my ass,” Gabriel snorted a reply and licked his finger. His eyes shot wide open as he sucked on the sweet digit, it was probably the smoothest and most delicious buttercream he’d ever tasted. “Wow, it’s so smooth…and what’s that...almost fragrant flavour?”

“Raw clover honey.” Sam beamed. “Tastes much better than refined sugar, and it’s much healthier for you.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes and went back for another lick. The buttercream was rich and thick, bursting with hidden flavours. The clover honey had a faint scent that reminded Gabriel of a summer breeze. The chocolate was intense, almost too intense, but it was balanced perfectly by the sweetness of honey and the richness of butter. Gabriel couldn’t help himself as he went back in for a third dip, but before his greedy fingers could sink into the velvet cream a large hand grabbed his wrist, stopping him in his tracks. 

“You should try it with the cake,” Sam chided gently, not letting go of Gabriel’s arm until the older man pulled his hand out of the box. Gabriel whined, but Sam’s puppy dog eyes made his heart flutter and he begrudgingly agreed. 

“Hey want to join us old goat?” Gabriel called out to Samuel while lifting the cake box and waving it in the air. “If you bring some more coffee you can have some of this new age funky ass bean cake!” 

“Sounds gross.” Samuel walked around the counter with a knife and three plates and forks. He saw the look of hurt on Sam’s face and couldn’t help but laugh. 

===

“Hey Dean.”

“Hey bitch.”

“Jerk.” 

Sam dropped his bag on the workbench and draped his winter jacket over it before rolling up his sleeves. He gave the pair of legs sticking out from beneath the Chevy Impala a playful kick before crouching down, trying to look under the car to catch his brother’s eyes. “How’s it hanging?”

“Heavy, and a little to the left,” came a gruff reply as Dean wrestled with something. When he was finally satisfied he pushed himself from under the car and gave Sam a dazzling smile before sitting up. 

“Dude, gross.” Sam laughed and pulled his brother to his feet. The two men gave each other manly hugs and slaps on the shoulders that were harder than necessary. All in the name of brotherly love. 

“So what brings you to the garage?” Dean said as he reached for his towel, wiping the sweat and grease from his face. 

“I got something for you,” Sam said excitedly as he dug into his bag and came up with a small paper packet the size of his palm. 

“Dude, no shit?!” Dean’s green eyes lit up like gems as he snatched the packet from Sam’s fingers. “Fun Dip?! Where did you even get this?!” He was all ready to rip into the packet, but the grime on his fingers made him stop. Without waiting for Sam’s reply Dean ran to the back of the car shop and proceeded to wash his hands vigorously with a generous amount of soap. The bubbles were a dark grey when he finally rinsed his fingers clean. 

“There was this retro candy shop. They had everything.” Sam followed Dean to the back and leaned against the door as he waited for Dean to finish cleaning up.

“Had?” Came Dean’s reply, muffled by the sound of running water. 

“They shut down,” Sam said bitterly. 

“Shame. I haven’t seen Fun Dip in ages.” Dean ripped into the little packet and pulled out the stick of candy. He lapped at it a few times then dipped the stick back into the packet, when he pulled it out again it was covered in a layer of fuzzy powdered sugar. “Ah, but this is the stuff.” 

Sam watched as Dean licked the candy and smiled. He loved and adored and looked up to his older brother, knowing that Sam was the reason for Dean’s brilliant smile made Sam warm from the inside out. Dean worked at the sugar stick for a bit longer, finally putting it down when he saw the look on Sam’s face. It was a look Dean knew well, it always meant Sam was up to something, sometimes good, sometimes not so much.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Dean asked.

“Well...this candy shop, along with a bunch of other family owned businesses are being chased out for some mall-”

“Wait, lemme guess, and you think it’s a stupid idea, and you want to stop it?” Dean could almost see the gears turning in Sam’s head. 

“No. Well, yes, you know. Like isn’t there some way to make it heritage or something?” 

“Well, are the buildings heritage?”

“...Probably not.”

“Then no, you can’t just MAKE it heritage.” Dean pulled the stick of candy out and licked at it again. 

“What if we got the people of the city together and reject the project? You know, like make a stance. We’re a democracy aren’t we?” Sam said hopefully.

“As long as it doesn’t end like Tiananmen Square, I don’t see why not,” Dean replied between licks. “But if the owners have already signed over their land then there’s not much we can do.”  
“We can buy it back?”

“Can’t buy something that’s not for sale silly.”

“There’s gotta be a way,” Sam muttered bitterly.

“Why do you care so much anyway? The last I checked you worked out of your kitchen, in your underwear.” 

“I didn’t, but then I saw how Gabe was looking at his boarded up store front, and…” Sam trailed off at the look Dean gave him. Oh shit. 

“Gabe?” Dean asked softly, trying hard to control the twitch of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Dean practically raised Sam when they were kids, there wasn’t much that Dean missed when it came to his little brother. “And who’s this Gabe?” 

“He’s...was the owner of the candy store,” Sam said quickly. 

“Oh, and that’s ALL he is?” There was that familiar tint of rosy glow in Sam’s cheeks that Dean recognized. Sam only got all pink and rosy when he talked about his guilty pleasures, like umbrella drinks and fairy tales, and now this ‘Gabe’ apparently. 

“Yes Dean, that’s all,” Sam huffed.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well it’s the truth!” Sam said defensively. “We met up this afternoon and he dropped off Fun Dip and Nerds for you and we had some coffee and cake and that was that.”

“Oh I’m SURE that was just that,” Dean teased. “And wait, you have Nerds? Where? Don’t you hold out on me now Sammy!” 

“Sammy is a chubby 12 year old,” Sam said indignantly. “It’s Sam. You can have some Nerds when you come over later.” 

“No doubt.” Dean still looked at Sam like a cat that’s cornered his mouse. 

“Anyway,” Sam swallowed. “I think I’m gonna head, you know, make dinner and all that before you come over.” Sam was too eager to get out from under Dean’s knowing gaze, it only confirmed Dean’s suspicions. 

“Yeah, you keep your nose clean now,” Dean called to Sam’s retreating figure before going back to his pouch of sugary goodness. 

Only when Sam was behind the relative safety of his Dodge Charger did he let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Leave it to Dean to pick apart Sam before Sam was even aware of his own feelings. 

Sam jammed the key into the ignition and pulled out of uncle Bobby’s garage, where Dean worked, and sped down the highway towards his apartment. He wanted to do something to help raise awareness of what’s happening because he cared about those small businesses and their owners. That part of his initial thought was genuine, and he still wanted to do something, anything, but a small part of him also wanted to do this to...what, impress Gabriel? Impress this near stranger that he’d only just met? 

A stranger that obviously has a crush on you, Sam thought and grinned to himself. The man was composed and well mannered during their coffee date, even if his sense of humour was on the dirtier side, but that comment he left when he was drunk made Gabriel’s feelings, if not his intentions, very clear. 

Was Sam’s opinion of the man coloured by this knowledge? He pondered this as he pulled off the highway and turned onto the main street that led to his place. Two more turns and Sam was pulling into the underground parkade of his building, his body on autopilot while his mind wandered between thoughts of Gabriel. In his mind’s eye Sam saw again Gabriel’s pouty lips, forever pulled in an easy smirk, his amber eyes and the golden twinkle when the afternoon sun hit them just right. 

Gabriel’s hair was almost as long as Sam’s, and he wondered if those sandy locks would feel as soft as his own. Suddenly Sam was hit with the mental image of his fingers brushing Gabriel’s hair out of his eyes before leaning in to taste the smaller man’s lips…

Sam stomped on the breaks and jerked in his seat as he nearly missed his spot. With a soft, self-deprecating laugh he shook himself out of his trance and backed his car into the lot. He sat in his car for a moment and remembered Gabriel’s look of utter surprise when he finally tried the black bean cake, and realized that Sam wanted to see that smile tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. 

Was this one of those fairy tale moments? Like when Prince Charming laid eyes on Snow White and suddenly he was in love? Sam ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes. Maybe it was, except in his version Snow White had the visage of a charming man with golden eyes. 

===

Gabriel tucked the cake box under an arm as he stuck the key to his apartment into the lock. He was still smiling as he closed the door behind him and leaned against the solid wood, his head rolling to one side as he breathed in deeply. Slowly Gabriel slid down until he was sitting with his back pressed against the front door, his knees drawn up to his chest so he could rest his chin. 

He was still broken up over losing the shop, but something had changed and suddenly he wasn’t reeling anymore, he felt grounded. Gabriel sighed, but it wasn’t a sigh of despair, and poked at the white cardboard box on the floor. 

The black bean cake was, to both Gabriel and Samuel’s great surprise, absolutely divine. The cake itself was moist and rich yet light and fluffy, the buttercream was the anchor that brought the cake from heaven down to earth. It was better than sex, well, better than sex with most people. Gabriel’s cheeks burned as he imagined sex with the giant of a man, the thought was both dirty and exhilarating and oh so wrong, yet it brought a small smile to Gabriel’s lips and he blushed further into the gap between his knees and his chest. 

Gabriel pulled out his phone and looked at the new entry under Sam. They exchanged phone numbers before parting, and now Gabriel was debating whether he should wait the token three days before contacting Sam. 

But that rule only applied if they’d gone on a real date right? Since Samuel spent most of the afternoon with them, that didn’t count as a real date right? But they did literally just see each other, would it be too creepy or needy for Gabriel to send Sam a text now? But Gabriel didn’t want to wait three whole days to talk to Sam again. 

Gabriel’s dilemma was solved for him when his phone chirped in his palm.

_From: Sam via SMS, 6:56PM  
Hey Gabe, got home alright? _


	5. Chapter 5

Christmas and New Years came and went. Gabriel spent most of it with his family this year at Castiel’s insistence. The youngest Novak did not trust Gabriel to not do something stupid, especially given Gabriel’s usual plans of getting stupid drunk with his friends while club crawling on New Year’s Eve. 

To his own surprise, Gabriel did not miss the mass of sweaty bodies pressed against him while taking shots of mysterious alcoholic concoctions. The family gathering was small and intimate, and Gabriel was able to relax and let the stress of the past month flow from him, along with easy company and conversation. 

Maybe easy company and familial comfort wasn’t all that’s helped him get through the past couple of weeks, Gabriel thought as he glanced down at the cell phone in his lap. He and Sam had been exchanging emails and text messages almost non-stop since their first and only coffee date. Most of Gabriel’s past relationships had been fast and furious, first dates usually ended with naked limbs and sore bottoms. Weekend flings were a norm, but that never bothered Gabriel, after all the store was his one true love. 

But Sam was different. Gabriel pined for him, longed to see him, wanted desperately to be in the man’s presence even if nothing other than friendly banter was on the table. Holidays were a terrible time to meet someone new, there was always family obligations and suddenly all your friends wanted to see you. Sam was a busy man, but he kept up with his bi-weekly video uploads, and he kept up his texts with Gabriel.

Gabriel binge watched everything on What Does the Moose Say. From the very first video Sam posted almost five years ago, to the latest video on holiday drinks made with almond milk. It was uncanny to see Sam change over the years. Five years ago his smile was boyish, his face was smoother and less angular. Gabriel was happy Sam had filled out his frame over the past five years, because he’d feel like a complete pedophile otherwise. 

He had wanted to ask Sam out on a date, a real date, but for the first time in his life he was afraid. Afraid of being judged, afraid of being rejected, afraid of losing what he currently shared with Sam. They texted like old friends, talked about their days and whined about trivial things in their lives. They also flirted, but it was light hearted and nothing serious, definitely nothing that would lead Gabriel to think that maybe Sam wanted more. 

Gabriel had picked up his book once more and was about to continue reading when the phone chirped in his lap, causing Gabriel to jump in his seat as he grabbed for it. Somewhere in the back of his mind he chided himself for being so pathetic, he’d even set a different notification tone for Sam just so he wouldn’t miss a single text from him. 

_From: Sam via SMS, 11:04AM  
Hey man, are you busy today?_

_From: You via SMS, 11:06AM_  
No, not really. What’s up?  


He had made lunch plans with a friend of his, but that didn’t matter. Gabriel waited at least two minutes before replying, after all he didn’t want to appear desperate. 

_From: Sam via SMS, 11:06AM  
Oh man, would you do me a huge favour? I promise to pay you back for it somehow._

Oh I know how you can pay me back big boy. Gabriel bit his lip and groaned as he read the text. Bad, bad brain, bad thoughts. He looked down at his lap and groaned louder. Down boy, down!

_From: You via SMS, 11:07AM  
Sure, what do you need?_

He had to bite back a “anything for you.” God he was pathetic. Utterly pathetic.

_From: Sam via SMS, 11:07AM  
Thank God. As you know I have a video due up in two days, but something came up and Jess had to head home. Family emergency you know. I can’t film by myself, not with the way things are set up now. I just need someone to come over and help me push some buttons. I’ll feed you!_

Oh yes, feed me your-NO. NO. NO. NO! Be cool Gabe, be COOL.

_From: You via SMS, 11:09AM  
Sure thing. Send me the address, I can be there for noon._

Sam texted Gabriel his eternal thanks and address. Gabriel just gripped his phone and stared at the message, burning the address into his skull. This was Sam’s address. Sam lived there. Sam worked there. Sam invited him over. Sam needed Gabriel’s help. Gabriel was going over to Sam’s place.

Gabriel was going to Sam’s place, where Sam may or may not spend his time half naked, or even fully naked. 

Gabriel groaned out his frustration and slapped his dick, willing his treacherous body to behave. He checked the time on his phone and was relieved that he had time for a shower. 

The water was hot as it beat down on his neck and shoulders. Gabriel stood beneath the spray and closed his eyes, immediately an image of Sam popped up. He literally could not get the man out of his head, and as time went on the images only got more lewd. Gabriel could feel his body react, pent up frustrations from days of pining came through in the form of one extremely hard erection. His hand gripped the shaft loosely as a sliver of guilt hovered on the edge of his mind, then his fingers tightened around his arousal and all thoughts of guilt were washed away by a wave of pleasure. 

He wanted Sam, wanted Sam’s fingers around his cock, his lips on his neck, shoulders, nipples. He needed Sam on top of him, his weight bearing down on him as he stretched and filled him. Gabriel moaned, the sound soft and mewling. His fingers began stroking, long lazy strokes along his shaft, slick with pre-cum and water. God how he wanted to feel Sam’s breath on his cheek, wanted to hear Sam’s grunts and moans as Gabriel milked him, sucked him in until they were one. 

His strokes became faster, his breathing more laboured as he leaned his forehead against the cold tiles of the shower. He wanted to feel Sam’s strong fingers grip his hips, wanted to feel Sam’s nails dig into his flesh. Faster and faster his fingers pumped as his hips thrust forward. 

Gabriel wanted to taste Sam’s scream as the younger man finally tipped himself over in Gabriel. His own scream echoed around the steamy bathroom, a sound not unlike Sam’s name rolled from his tongue as Gabriel gasped for breath. Rope after thick rope of milky release hit the tiled walls until Gabriel’s hips stopped jerking even as his fingers milked himself dry, worked his sensitive head until Gabriel rode out his orgasm.

It took another long moment before Gabriel was able to collect himself and finish his shower. The release had hit him so hard all he wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep, but Sam needed him, and he desperately wanted to see Sam again. 

Gabriel finished cleaning himself up with record speed, even if his legs were still weak and his hands shook when he shaved and brushed his hair. He stood in front of his closet, naked, and sighed in frustration as he tried to decide on what to wear. Jeans and a t-shirt was his initial choice, but he felt like it was too sloppy. Slacks maybe? No that’s too formal, he was going to Sam’s house, not his fucking graduation ceremony. 

Eventually Gabriel decided on a pair of black jeans with a cream coloured polo shirt. He gave himself one last look in the mirror before grabbing his keys. The drive to Sam’s was short and uneventful, Gabriel was pleased at how close they lived, it would be easy in the future for them to visit even on foot. But Gabriel was getting ahead of himself.

Sam buzzed Gabriel through the front door. As Gabriel was riding the elevator up to the eleventh floor he began to feel nervous. What would he do when Sam opened the door? Do they hug? Shake hands? Would Sam think this shirt was too formal? Not formal enough? Was cream a good colour on him? What the hell, was cream even a colour? 

The elevator pinged his arrival, and Gabriel cursed the damn thing for moving so quickly. He wasn’t done feeling insecure yet, how dare the elevator arrive before he was ready? He looked around until he found Sam’s unit and was just about to knock when the door flew open. Gabriel gasped, arm raised and mouth open, and just gaped at Sam. 

Sam was wearing an old Stanford t-shirt and blue jeans. The shirt was a bit short on his tall frame and rode up to reveal just a hint of flesh. It was enough to send Gabriel spiralling into blush town. 

“Hey man, thanks for coming on such short notice,” Sam said excitedly. Why did he have to smile so prettily? Why did those dimples have to be so deep? “C’mon in, make yourself at home.” 

Gabriel allowed himself to be pulled through the door, he was acutely aware of Sam’s arm brushing against him, his warmth behind him as he closed and locked the front door. Memories of his shower flashed through his mind and Gabriel shivered with guilt and embarrassment and need. 

If Sam sensed something was wrong he said nothing, instead he turned and took Gabriel’s coat, hung it up on the coat rack and led Gabriel to the brightly lit kitchen. Gabriel’s awkwardness was momentarily forgotten as he took in Sam’s kitchen. He’d seen Sam’s kitchen countless times in his videos, but being physically in it was something else. 

The kitchen was a lot bigger than Gabriel though, but then again the only reference to size he had was Sam, and Sam was not a small man. He recognized the stainless steel appliances but for the first time Gabriel noticed the neatly trimmed row of fresh herbs growing on the window sill. There was a giant knife block sitting in the corner of the counter, the KitchenAid stand mixer, food processor and blender all placed next to each other in an extremely organized fashion. 

On the other side of the sink was a fruit bowl filled to the brim with apples and pears and oranges and bananas, next to that was Sam’s set of mixing bowls with the smallest stacked in the middle. The oven and gas stovetop combo was installed on the left side of the island, with the right side completely cleared of any clutter, this was Sam’s working surface. 

What caught Gabriel off guard though, was not the kitchen itself, but what’s on the other side of it. There were two large light umbrellas set on opposite ends of the kitchen, both pointed toward the island. Lights were set up beneath the umbrellas as well, the bulbs pointed directly at the umbrellas to reflect light. The window behind the sink was unobscured as natural light filtered through.

There was a small tripod set up directly in front of the island with a camera attached. It wasn’t anything Gabriel had ever seen, certainly nothing he’d ever operated in his life. Next to the camera was what Gabriel recognized as those fancy microphones reporters used when they conducted interviews on the street. Holy cow.

“Dude,” Gabriel breathed at Sam, pointing at the fancy set up.

“Yeah,” Sam smiled shyly, then his smile turned apologetic. “This is why I couldn’t do it myself anymore. It was so much easier back in the day when I had a hand held camcorder and prayed for sunshine. Jess was the one that set this all up, she normally operates it.”

“This looks serious. I hope I don’t break anything or mess anything up…” Gabriel said, more to himself than to Sam, as he poked at the camera. 

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll just do the far shots today. Jess will be back tomorrow and she can do the close ups.” Sam flashed Gabriel a wide grin, his perfect pearly whites almost blinding. “Thanks again for helping me do this. I’ve never been late posting a video before, don’t want to start now.” 

“No worries. Speaking of Jess, I hope things are okay at home?” Gabriel had been happy that Jessica was out of town, then felt guilty for capitalizing on her misfortune. He felt he should at least ask after her to make sure things were okay. 

“Oh! Sorry I didn’t mention that it wasn’t anything bad. Her dog was pregnant and she got a call this morning that the dog was giving birth to puppies. Jess, being Jess, wouldn’t miss this for the world so she just up and left.” Sam explained as he busied himself in the kitchen, pulling out bowls and knives and two cutting boards. “She left the dog with her parents when she moved in with me. Sadly this place doesn’t allow pets.” 

So Jessica lived with Sam. Gabriel felt a pang of jealousy but brushed it off quickly. Who was he to get jealous? But Jessica was gorgeous, and if Sam was straight, and there was nothing that’s suggested otherwise, then he would be a fool to not get up on that. 

“So, what are we making today?” Gabriel cleared his throat and changed the subject. He had never been a jealous man but today he learned that he didn’t like jealous Gabe very much.

“Stuffed eggplants,” Sam replied distractedly. He was reading a printed sheet of paper, no doubt his script and ingredient list for the episode. “With roasted root vegetables and cauliflower puree.” 

Gabriel watched Sam quietly, feeling privileged that he alone was allowed to witness Sam’s process. He could see that Sam was getting into character as he muttered lines under his breath. Every episode opened with the same line, and Gabriel was surprised to see that even after this many years Sam still practiced it. His gaze followed Sam as he moved from the sink to the fridge, checking to make sure he had everything he needed. Then he moved to the spice rack that Gabriel had failed to noticed, and began scooping the required herbs and spices into individual glass bowls. 

There was a fluidity to Sam’s movements that captured Gabriel’s attention. Sam danced in his kitchen with ease and grace despite his size. There was no hesitant pondering as he thought about where his tools were, he knew this kitchen as well as Gabriel knew his own stock room. The moment of overlap made Gabriel’s ribcage constrict. God he missed his shop. 

“Okay Gabe, I’m ready,” Sam called out from behind the island, snapping Gabriel out of his thoughts. The tall man walked around behind the camera and showed Gabriel exactly which button to press. It was simple and all Gabriel had to do was to make sure the camera followed Sam wherever he went. The went over the script together, Sam having printed a copy for Gabriel, and marked all the spots where Gabriel will need to move the camera. 

Gabriel went over the sheet once more when Sam went back into the kitchen, and took a deep breath to clear his head. This was important to Sam, and he wasn’t going to let self pity distract him. 

“Okay, what do I say? Action?” 

“Whatever you want man, as long as you let me know when you’re ready to roll.” Sam laughed, it lit up his face and chased away all traces of depressing thoughts, replacing them with unchaste ones. It was going to be a long afternoon. 

“A-Alright then, uh, ready in 5, 4, 3.” Gabriel went silent, indicating with his fingers the countdown to action and pushed the record button and held up the microphone. 

“Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of What Does the Moose Say!” Sam’s cheeky grin was replaced by a warm smile as he looked directly into the camera. He was immediately in the zone and Gabriel was impressed with his professionalism. Did the kid go to acting school or was he just naturally this talented? 

Gabriel watched Sam through the small screen of the camera, moving the machine left and right as Sam went from the island to the fridge, then back to the island with his arms loaded with packages of meat and bags of vegetables. He watched as Sam began cleaning and chopping and yet still talking to the camera. Didn’t the man need to watch where that knife was going? 

They took breaks throughout filming while they waited for the food to cook. Sam came by and checked Gabriel’s footage every chance he had, wanting to make sure that things were going as planned. 

“This is pretty good Gabe, you sure you’ve never done this before?” Sam said as he watched through the last fifteen minutes of footage. The kitchen was starting to smell wonderful as the food cooked in the oven.

“You don’t have to lie to me, can’t be that good.” Gabriel fidgeted with hem of his shirt, unsure of what to do with his hands with Sam standing so close to him. 

“No really, your timing is even better than Jessica’s, but uh don’t tell her I said that.” Sam turned and gave Gabriel a wink before turning back to the small screen. It was a good thing he did, the wink left Gabriel flushed red from head to toe. What was he twelve?! 

Sam watched the rest of the tape in silence, writing periodically in his notebook, undoubtedly notes for later when he did the editing. It left Gabriel plenty of time to wandered off and explore on his own. 

The rest of the apartment was nothing like the kitchen. Where the kitchen was large and pristine and fancy as hell, the living room was small and cosy and disorganized. There was one large couch in the middle of the room, with a large flat screen TV mounted on the far wall. Between the TV and couch was a small glass living room table, every inch of that table was covered up by remotes and piles of scripts just like the one Gabriel had in his back pocket. 

On the wall adjacent to the TV was a large floor to ceiling shelf groaning under the weight of DVDs and CDs and books. Gabriel walked over to the shelf and ran his fingers along the spines of the books until a particularly thick book caught his attention. “The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales” was not something he expected Sam to have, maybe it belonged to Jessica? Gingerly Gabriel pulled the book off the shelf and flipped through it. Even as a kid Gabriel didn’t understand fairy tales. Why would Cinderella allow herself to be treated like filth? How could a person climb a tower using just Rapunzel’s hair? 

However, it quickly became obvious that this book held stories unlike those bastardized by Disney. Gabriel was so engrossed in his reading that he did not hear Sam come up behind him.

“Did you know that in the original story, the frog’s spell was not broken by a kiss?” Gabriel jumped and the book fell from his hands. He turned around to Sam’s imposing figure standing behind him. Oh so close behind him.

“O-Oh? I was just getting to that part…” Gabriel stuttered as he tried to collect himself. 

“Yeah, the spoiled princess threw him against a wall,” Sam said as he bent over to pick up the book, he ran a loving hand along the front cover before handing it back to Gabriel. “Wicked, spoiled little princess.” Gabriel took the book from Sam, his golden eyes locked on to smokey greys.   
The looked at each other for a long moment. Gabriel’s palms grew warm, so warm he was afraid of burning through the pages. Sam was looking at him strangely but Gabriel couldn’t read his expression. It wasn’t unpleasant though, and before Gabriel could stop himself he was leaning forward, closing the distance between them inch by inch.

DING! DING! DING! 

The oven beeped loudly, making both men jump out of their skins. Sam recovered first and ran a large hand through his hair before smiling awkwardly. “I uh, I better go check on that. Uh, yeah.” 

“Y-Yeah, then we can continue with the filming,” Gabriel croaked. He cleared his throat as Sam walked away and hastily put the book back where he found it. Damn fairy tales. Damn ovens. Damn his own stupid brain. 

Gabriel heard the clatter of metal trays and oven doors as Sam checked on the food. He took a moment and swallowed large gulps of air before feeling composed enough to go back into the kitchen. Sam gave him the thumbs up and smiled. “Meat’s cooked. Now I just need to put it back in the oven, then when we start rolling I’ll take it out, as if it just came out. You ready?”

“Yeah, let’s do this.” Gabriel gave Sam a thumbs up in return and nodded with an enthusiasm he did not feel. He’ll worry about his stupidity later, right now he needed to get his head back in the game and finish helping Sam shoot. 

With the camera rolling, their tension faded. Sam was once again the charming show host with the dreamy smile. He oohed and aahed at the steaming meat stuffed eggplants, then plated the cauliflower puree and roasted vegetables on a plate before laying down the centre piece. It both looked and smelled absolutely delicious.

“Thanks again for watching What Does the Moose Say. Peace!” Sam waved at the camera, fork in hand.

“And that’s a wrap,” Gabriel called out after pressing the button to stop recording. “I hope that turns out okay.” 

“I’m sure it did. Thanks man.”

Gabriel watched as Sam began cleaning up the kitchen, he was torn between wanting to help and wanting to bolt out of there. He came so close to ruining what’s only a budding friendship, and worse, he came close to never being able to see Sam again. Stupid stupid stupid. 

“I should probably get going…” Gabriel murmured. 

“Wait what? No I said I’d feed you.” Sam looked up and frowned, his gaze holding Gabriel rooted to his spot behind the camera. 

“Oh well, maybe next time I’m not particularly hungr-” Gabriel’s stomach chose this moment to growl, loud and long. 

“I think your stomach says otherwise.” Sam smirked.

Gabriel groaned in embarrassment, then remembered he’d actually not eaten at all that day. He wanted to refuse, but the look on Sam’s face said he’d not take no for an answer. Sam dished up a second plate, made it just as pretty as the first, before beckoning Gabriel to the dinner table. They ate while making small talk, it mostly consisted of Gabriel moaning around mouthfuls of probably the best home cooked meal he’d ever had and Sam laughing bashfully. 

Between the two of them dishes was done fairly quickly, even including all the mess Sam had made during the making of the video. When the dishwasher was finally loaded and running Sam leaned back against the counter and breathed out a long sigh of contentment. 

“Thanks for helping with the kitchen,” Sam said lazily. 

“Thanks for feeding me such delicious good food,” Gabriel replied equally as lazy as he leaned against the counter next to Sam. Gabriel was rapidly sinking into food coma status, after all they did just eat four people’s worth of food in one sitting. 

“If you liked that, you should come out for next week’s filming,” Sam bumped shoulders with Gabriel playfully. “Jessica isn’t much help when it comes eating leftovers, I could really use the help so I don’t end up eating the same meal three days straight.” 

“Oh what a problem to have,” Gabriel mocked. “Must be so hard to have all this food and no one to eat it…”

“Oh shut up.”

“Make me.”

The words left Gabriel’s mouth without thinking and Sam froze next to him. Gabriel blinked and stared straight ahead, afraid of what Sam would say or do next. Was this it? Was he getting kicked out? Why was Sam so quiet, why wasn’t he saying anything? It suddenly became so quiet in the kitchen, the tension so thick one could cut it like butter. 

Gabriel was reeling and trying to find something to say, anything to mask this awkwardness that stretched between them. He opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again but all thought fled his brain when Sam’s warm lips pressed against his. 

Gabriel took a sharp breath as a small noise of shock escaped his throat. Sam pulled back, uncertainty and fear in his eyes. They looked at each other, stared into each other’s eyes and watched their own reflections until their lips smashed against each other once more. The kiss was heated and passionate as Sam’s teeth nipped and his tongue probed. Gabriel felt his knees go weak and hung onto Sam’s shoulders as he opened himself up, enjoying the taste of Sam’s tongue in his mouth. 

Sam reached up and cupped Gabriel’s cheek with one large hand, the dry heat of his skin making Gabriel light headed as he pressed in to deepen the kiss even further. The smaller man felt Sam’s arm circle around his waist and gasped in surprise when Sam lifted him up to sit on the counter, their kiss unbroken. 

Gabriel pulled back from the kiss with a gasp, his chest heaving as his heart fluttered against his ribcage. He gazed down and noted the open desire on Sam’s face, noted Sam’s flushed cheeks and kiss swollen lips. God but Sam was gorgeous. Gabriel dipped down once more, his lips already hungry for another taste of Sam when he heard a soft cough. 

“Uh, hey guys, am I interrupting?” Jessica said coyly, the devil’s grin on her cherry red lips.


	6. Chapter 6

When life handed you lemons, you made lemonade. At least that’s how Gabriel had lived his whole life believing. His version of making lemonade was randomly picking out Sam’s videos and trying out recipes everyday. At first it was difficult, Sam used ingredients Gabriel had never even heard of, and stocking up his kitchen required numerous trips to the specialty food store and a sizeable rushed order off Amazon.

The first thing he tried making was the black bean cake with chocolate buttercream icing. It was as simple as Sam had promised, and before long his small kitchen was bursting with the sweet aroma of cake baking. Gabriel was no cake decorator, but he was skilled enough to draw a giant penis on his cake with icing before taking a picture and sending it to Sam.

It had been a month since they shared that first kiss in Sam’s kitchen. It was a memory Gabriel could never get tired of. He relived it every chance he had, usually standing in his kitchen while waiting for his food to cook. He’d remember the way Sam’s palm felt against his cheek, his lips warm, his tongue wet and searching. Inevitably Gabriel’s thoughts would end with an ache in his loins and sometimes burnt food on the stove. 

Gabriel had gone home that day dazed and embarrassed and aroused all in one. He remember muttering a hasty goodbye to Jessica before rushing out of the kitchen, his cheeks burning and his pants way too tight. Sam had rushed after him, and before Gabriel could bolt out of the front door he grabbed his arm and pulled him in for another kiss. 

The second kiss was chaste, a peck on the lips, but it was enough to ground Gabriel as he looked up into Sam’s eyes. 

“I’ll call you,” Sam had said, his voice husky. Sam pulled Gabriel into a hug, the smaller man relished the feeling of being folded in those thick strong arms. Sam was like a rock that Gabriel did not mind leaning against. 

“Also, you should take this.” Sam pulled away and ran into the living room, he came back and handed Gabriel the large book of fairy tales. 

It was that very same book that was spread out on the dinner table as Gabriel waited for his batch of sweet potato cookies to bake. Gabriel enjoyed reading, but between his brothers taking turns taking him out and making sure he was coping there was very little time for Gabriel to just sink into the book and devour it. 

Gabriel also didn’t want the book to end. He enjoyed the morbid nature of these fairy tales. Although they were set in fantastical lands, these stories held real life meanings and the messages were all very grounded in reality. It became obvious that fairy tales were less about happily-ever-afters and more about teaching kids life lessons. Suck on that Disney. 

The oven timer pinged incessantly, indicating that the cookies were ready. Gabriel pushed himself away from the book and pulled out the tray of cookies. They were an orange yellow and soft in the centre, but the edges had crisped up and browned. They smelled wonderful, a hint of cinnamon mixed with earthy sweetness. Gabriel could get used to these supposed healthy treats. 

He waited until the cookies were cool enough to touch before transferring them to a cooling rack, then Gabriel pulled out his cell phone and snapped a picture which he sent to Sam. The reply came instantly. It always amazed Gabriel just how quickly Sam replied to his messages, almost as if the man was sitting by his phone just waiting for them.

_From: Sam via SMS, 2:03PM  
Damn those look good Gabe, where’s mine?_

_From: You via SMS, 2:03PM  
I’m sure you can find some tucked away in that deep freeze of yours. This is from your last week’s video :p _

_From: Sam via SMS, 2:05PM  
Not the point. I want one made by you. Come by later today?_

It had been like this for three weeks now. Gabriel would bake or cook something from Sam’s website, if it turned out well he would send Sam a picture, in return Sam would always invite Gabriel over so they could sample his handy work together. The proximity of their apartments made visits like these easy, but they were casual, less like dates and more like friends hanging out. Jessica was also around, and there was no more kissing.

Gabriel wanted to ask Sam out on a real date. The kiss they shared held the promise of so much more, but Gabriel was afraid to reach for it. He enjoyed the afternoons spent with Sam and even Jessica, she was fun and flirtatious, it made Gabriel feel at home with them. He didn’t want to lose that by slapping a label on whatever it was they shared. 

Today was a shoot day, which meant Sam would be busy preparing for a new episode and Jessica would be setting up the kitchen with their fancy equipment. Jessica had insisted that Gabriel help them with the shoots, especially after watching the episode where Gabriel had manned the camera. 

“Sam was totally giving the camera fuck-me eyes.” She had joked when Gabriel came over to watch the finished video before they posted it. Gabriel had been nervous seeing her again, the comment made him want to crawl under a rock. 

“JESS!” Sam had been mortified as he tried to shut Jessica up by covering her mouth. She just squirmed out from Sam’s grasp and waggled her eyebrows at them before disappearing into her room. Maybe that was when the unorthodox friendship had officially formed between Gabriel and the pretty blond. 

_From: You via SMS, 2:10PM  
Sure thing. Do I need to bring my director’s cap?_

_From: Sam via SMS, 2:11PM  
Jess insists. You need to stop doing her job for her! I’m not paying her to sit and be pretty  >:[! _

_From: You via SMS, 2:11PM  
I don’t mind it, you always feed me after so I call it a fair trade. See you in 30 :)_

Gabriel masturbated in the shower before pulling on a fresh pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt. He found the release helped with the tension, not to mention didn’t some study somewhere prove that jerking it once a day kept the prostate doctor away? After he was satisfied with his cleanliness Gabriel packed up the cookies in a plastic bag before driving over to Sam’s apartment. 

Jessica had already set up the lighting equipment, and was in the process of adjusting the camera when Gabriel came up behind her and waved a cookie in her face. She opened wide and gobbled the cookie up in one bite before turning around and giving Gabriel a quick hug. 

“Hmmm deritious,” she mumbled with her mouth full before turning back to finish adjusting the light settings. 

“Do you need me to do anything?” Gabriel asked Jessica, but his eyes were on Sam as the large man settled back into his kitchen, picking up from where he left off when he went to let Gabriel in. Judging by the setup of the kitchen, today’s video was going to be some sort of baked goods, Gabriel’s mouth watered at the prospect of something sweet and cakey for an early dinner. 

“Um, yeah, actually,” Jessica turned around and pointed at a hand held camera set on the dinner table. “You want to help with the close up shots today?” 

Gabriel nodded and grabbed the camera off the table. He flipped the on switch and watched the patch of floor in front of him appear in the tiny LCD screen. After that first time, Jessica had gone over all their equipment with Gabriel, showing him all the settings and which ones to use to achieve the desired effect. 

“You’re a godsend Gabe,” Jessica groaned happily. With Gabriel helping, a two day shoot can usually be done in one, not to mention Sam would only have to make the recipe twice instead of four times.  
“Okay guys, I’m ready.” Sam waved a sheet of paper at the camera and smiled a toothy grin. They went over the recipe, and each frame that required Gabriel to bring in the camera for a close up, then began shooting. It wasn’t until well past six in the evening before they wrapped up. 

“That was good guys!” Jessica said excitedly as she popped the memory chip out of the camera. “Now I leave you two gents to your evening.”

“Oh?” Gabriel’s ears perked up as he turned off his camera and pulled out the chip to hand to Jessica. 

“Yeah, got a date.” She pocketed the chip and winked. 

“With Buzzy?” Buzzy was Jessica’s very realistic looking purple vibrator. The conversation of sex toys came up one afternoon and Gabriel had learned way more about Jessica’s collection than he cared to know. Sam pretended to not hear anything they said as he plugged his ears with two fingers and pranced around the kitchen like a moose.

“Fuck you Gabe,” she retorted with a scowl on her face. “I met Benny at a coffee shop.”

“Benny is it? Sam did you guys get a new package last week?” Gabriel grinned cheekily while ducking a flying couch pillow. Sam groaned. 

“He’s tall and he has a nice soft beard.” Jessica said indignantly while throwing a second pillow at Gabriel. “Besides, I figure it’s time I left you love birds alone for a change.” She grinned knowingly at Gabriel, causing him to blush from head to toe. 

“Jess!” Sam gave Jessica a warning look and his token bitch face. The blond put up both hands defensively before backing out of the kitchen and down the hallway to her room. 

They looked at each other awkwardly for a moment. Gabriel came to his senses first and began clearing away dishes to hide his heated cheeks. Sam watched the smaller man quietly as he tried to figure out what was going through that head of his. 

“Gabe…” 

“It’s fine Sam,” Gabriel replied hurriedly. The silence stretched on as Sam joined Gabriel in the clean up. They loaded the dishwasher, put leftover food in containers, wiped down the counter and washed the mixing bowls and measure cups. Sam took down the lighting umbrellas and lights and Gabriel put the cameras away in their storage cases. 

Jessica came out of her room, dressed to kill, and blew the boys a goodbye kiss. Before leaving the apartment she caught Sam’s eyes and held his gaze for a brief moment, Sam swallowed nervously and nodded before looking away. 

Jessica was sick of Sam’s pining and whining and moping around when Gabriel wasn’t over. She was sick of it and this was her way of doing something about it, by putting the two men in a room together and forcing them to finally confess their feelings. As if Gabriel’s comment and that kiss wasn’t obvious enough. Boys can be so thick sometimes.

The front door closed with a soft click, the sound made Gabriel jump. Sam picked up the TV perfect plates of food and motioned for Gabriel to come join him at the dinner table. The video today was biscuits and gravy, although not a cake, Gabriel was still looking forward to sampling it. That was until Jessica’s words caused his appetite to flee. 

“I’m really not that hungry,” Gabriel said weakly. “I should probably get going…”

Sam put the plates down and walked to stand in front of Gabriel. He was so close, too close, Gabriel wanted to bolt, to run, but Sam’s gaze held him in place. “Are you mad at me?”

Gabriel blinked in surprise. 

“I’m sorry about Jess, you know her, no filter,” Sam laughed nervously, the smile did not reach his eyes. “Anyway, just come and eat. I know this isn’t a cake or cookies, but I promise it’s good.” Sam reached out and wrapped large fingers tentatively around Gabriel’s hand. 

Sam’s hand was clammy, his fingers shook and his grip was unsure. It felt wrong, wrong because Sam was always so self assured, so confident as he smiled into the camera, so grounded because he was supposed to be the rock that Gabriel secretly leaned on. The idea that Sam could have doubts, that Sam could feel insecurities made Gabriel nauseous. Worse was the realization that Gabriel might be the cause of Sam’s sweaty palms. 

“No I’m not mad at you, I can never be mad at you…” The words slipped out, but Gabriel didn’t care. He reached up an unsteady hand and ran a finger along Sam’s jaw line. 

Sam leaned against the touch, tension melting from his shoulders as he closed his eyes. A tiny smile tugged his lips upwards and those dimples were once again Gabriel’s undoing. The shorter man leaned forward and up on his tip toes to graze a feather light kiss against Sam’s lips. 

Strong arms pulled Gabriel against Sam’s solid chest and held him there. Gabriel hesitated only briefly before wrapping his arms around Sam’s torso, his fingers locking to hold on as tightly as possible. He pressed his ear against Sam and closed his eyes as he listened to the sound of Sam’s erratic heartbeat.

Gabriel was soft and hard and tiny yet larger than life in Sam’s arms. Sam had needed this, needed to hold Gabriel while his chin rested on a bed of his soft sandy hair. The younger man inhaled deeply, enjoying the scent of Gabriel’s shampoo mixed with freshly baked biscuits. They held on like this for what felt like an eternity, until their heartbeats melded into one relaxed buh-bump. Buh-bump. 

So caught up in listening to Sam’s beating heart, Gabriel didn’t hear the taller man’s words until he repeated it a second time. 

“Would you like to go on a date with me?” Sam’s voice was soft and small, but it was no longer unsure. 

“Of course,” Gabriel smiled into the fabric of Sam’s t-shirt. “Who could resist a gigantor like you?”


	7. Chapter 7

The February evening was cloudless and cold, but Gabriel barely felt it as he stood outside his apartment building, hands in pockets, waiting for Sam to pick him up. It was still another twenty minutes until their agreed upon time, but Gabriel was driving himself crazy with anticipation and his nerves were raw by the time he finally decided to go wait outside. 

Why he was nervous was beyond Gabriel. It wasn’t the first time he’d gone on a date with someone, but this wasn’t just anyone. Sam was taking him out on a date. A real date that might entail hand holding and long soulful gazes and maybe even a little kissing. Gabriel giggled (oh sweet Jesus, what was he in junior high?) at the thought and ducked a little further into his sports jacket. 

Come to think of it a sports jacket might have been a little thin as the persistent cold finally cut through his happy haze, and suddenly Gabriel was freezing. He studied his reflection in the glass door of his building and tried to remind himself that he had made the right choices. His blue jeans were pressed and starched, underneath his black sports jacket was a navy blue dress shirt that shimmered with a metallic sheen. Instead of his usual winter boots Gabriel had opted for a nice pair of Italian stitched dress shoes. 

He looked good. It was worth it. God it had better be worth it because dear Lord was it cold outside. 

Gabriel was about to head back in the relative warmth of the building lobby, because blue lips were not sexy, when he was bathed in bright lights. Sam pulled up to the curb and rolled down the window as he gave Gabriel an appreciative once over. The older man almost shrunk under the bold gaze, feeling as if Sam could see right through his clothes. 

“C’mon, get in! Must be freezing out there!” Sam beckoned with a large hand before turning the heater up in his car. 

Gabriel scrambled into the car and rolled up the window before strapping himself into the passenger seat. The sudden rush of heat made his skin tingle and his face itch, Gabriel sighed as his fingers began to regain feeling. 

“I said I’d call you when I got here,” Sam chided, not unkindly. “Good thing I decided to show up a little early.” 

“I thought a little fresh air would do me good,” Gabriel replied miserably, blowing hot air into his hands. 

“What, you nervous?” There was a teasing glint in Sam’s eyes that looked like a challenge.

“Nervous? I was going on dates with strange men before you were out of your diapers young padawan.” 

“What you were a total man slut at 5?” 

“Oh shut up and drive.” Gabriel shoved Sam playfully before settling back into the seat of the car. Was the seat heated? “So where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” Sam replied secretively. 

Gabriel hid a grin as he settled back and enjoyed the warmth both on his skin and inside his ribcage. Normally Gabriel and Sam chattered like brothers, but there was something in the air that made neither of them want to break the comfortable silence. Instead Sam turned on the radio and the soothing sound of soft rock enveloped them both. 

The car moved along the highway at speed. Gabriel switched between watching Sam and looking outside while his stomach twisted with butterflies. Yes, he was nervous, but it wasn’t a gut wrenching, just-shoot-me-and-put-me-out-of-my-misery kind of nerves; instead Gabriel was giddy and Sam being all secretive made the anticipation even more heady. 

Street lamps became farther and fewer in between as Sam continued driving. There were fewer cars on the highway now and Gabriel couldn’t hold his tongue any longer. “So...is this the part where you abduct me and sell my organs?” 

Sam laughed, the sound deep and throaty, and winked at Gabriel before turning his attention back on the road. “Not your organs Gabe, but you did fetch a good price as a sex slave.” 

“Cheeky bastard!” Gabriel choked and punched Sam on the shoulder. He felt his cheeks warm up; it was the heater in the car on full blast, and definitely not Gabriel feeling embarrassed. Definitely not.

The banter died down once more. Gabriel shifted in his seat until he was leaning against the door, head turned to stare out the window into the inky night sky. There were no street lamps anymore, the lack of artificial light gave way to billions of twinkling stars winking down at them. It was easy to lose himself as Gabriel gazed lazily at the stars, wondering how he’d become such a love struck idiot. 

Gabriel was not used to this warm feeling whenever he was around someone, unless the heat was somewhere down south, needy and passionate. He never kept long term relationships, and quite honestly had never wanted one. He was the trickster, as Samuel called him, he was the one that rolled into a man’s life like a storm, gave him an enthralling show then a spectacular exit before feelings were hurt and attachments formed. 

His fingers twisted in his lap as Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut, fear tugging at the edges of his heart as a single unanswered question roared in his head until his skull hurt. Was he letting Sam in because he lost his only love? Was Sam only there to fill this hole that was so deep in his chest he didn’t know how to start filling it even if he tried? 

The thought that he might be using Sam made him queasy, and for a moment the car felt claustrophobic and Gabriel wanted to jump out and be anywhere but here. His heart hammered erratically in his chest, and Gabriel found it hard to breathe. Jesus H. Christ, was he having a panic attack on the way to a date? You’re losing it Gabe, you really really are. 

A large warm hand covered Gabriel’s clammy fingers. The dry heat of Sam’s palm and the pressure of his squeeze had miraculous effects on the older man’s pounding heart. Gabriel peeked at Sam and was thankful when the younger man’s eyes were glued on the road, offering Gabriel as much privacy as an enclosed moving vehicle would allow. 

Sam’s physical attractiveness aside, it was his solid foundation that Gabriel was helplessly drawn to, Sam had been a safe landing pad when Gabriel was falling to pieces. As much as he had wanted to believe it was just physical attraction, Gabriel couldn’t deny that more than those deep dimples and teasing smile, it was Sam’s eyes that held Gabriel captive with their depth of true, genuine emotion. Those same eyes now stole glances at Gabriel, the look of barely masked concern on Sam’s chiseled features chased away Gabriel’s doubts and panic. Sam cared.

Maybe he was losing it, but there was no one else Gabriel would rather lose himself to. 

“Are you okay?” Sam’s voice was soft, unjudgemental. 

“Yeah…” Gabriel didn’t want Sam to know what had gone through his head, didn’t want to share his shame, so he simply squeezed Sam’s fingers tightly like a life line. 

“If...if you’re not feeling up for it-”

“NO!” Gabriel cut Sam off abruptly. He didn’t know what to say after such an outburst, and an uncomfortable silence filled the air. “I...I’ve been looking forward to this…” Gabriel finished lamely. God he was a mess. 

Sam let out a small quivering breath and chuckled nervously. “Good. Me too. Jess said, and I quote, ‘you could have fuelled a small jet with the amount of excitement coming out of your ears.’” 

“Well I’m really excited to see what you’ve got planned then.” Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly he felt exhausted, the concoction of confusing emotions catching up with him. 

“Actually. Change of plans.” Sam pulled his hand back reluctantly and gripped the steering wheel with both hands. He shoulder checked even though the highway was empty, and turned off at the next exit. Gabriel didn’t recognize the area, but was surprisingly unbothered by it. He trusted Sam, maybe more than he should. 

Sam drove in silence, something like determination set on his face as he glanced to his left periodically, as if he was searching for a landmark. Gabriel looked out the window once more, they were driving down a small tree lined road and the only light came from the car’s headlights. When he had the shop Gabriel had no time to leave the city and explore the surrounding scenery, even though he knew there were some hidden gems just outside of the city core.

Before long Sam turned the car off the road and down a dirt path. He slowed down and maneuvered the car around potholes until the path widened into a clearing. The Charger came to a gentle stop before Sam killed the engine. The interior lights came on, making it near impossible to see into the darkness surrounding them. 

“I take we’ve arrived?”

“Mhmm.” Sam smiled, it lifted his cheeks and squeezed his eyes into slits. “C’mon, I want to show you something.” Sam unbuckled and got out of the car. Gabriel hesitated as he listened to Sam rummage in the trunk of the car. While he was excited to see what Sam had in store for him, Gabriel didn’t fancy being outside in the cold. Maybe the sports jacket WAS a bad idea after all. 

Sam came around and opened Gabriel’s door, two giant wool blankets draped over one arm and a familiar white cardboard box in his hands. 

“Man you are all sorts of prepared aren’t you.” Gabriel hopped out of the car and took the box from Sam’s hands, allowing the man to close and lock the car before leading them both behind a screen of trees. There was a smaller clearing hidden behind the screen, a large tree stump stood proudly in the centre. The ground was frozen solid, but the trees provided enough shelter from the wind. Sam turned and gave Gabriel a big smile before spreading one blanket down on the grass and sitting down. 

Gabriel followed and was soon snuggled up against Sam while the latter spread the second blanket around their shoulders. They sat like this for a long while, hanging onto each other, sharing their body heat until it got toasty inside the blanket. Only then did Gabriel realize that Sam was in dress pants, a nicely fitted dress shirt and a suit jacket under his windbreaker. 

“Judging by how you’re dress, I take this wasn’t the original plan?” Gabriel asked softly, his voice echoing in the silent night.

“I had this big night planned. Fancy pasture to plate restaurant that I had to pull some strings to get us a reservation at.” Sam shifted until he was snuggled up behind Gabriel, his long legs on either side of the smaller man’s hips as his arms slid around Gabriel’s shoulders. “Was going to take you to a show after, then feed you home made desserts during the intermission.”

“...Sam…” A pang of guilt speared through Gabriel’s chest. Sam had made such wonderful plans, and he’d ruined them all. “We could still go…” Gabriel wasn’t sure if he was up for a fancy evening, but he’d do it for Sam, he owed Sam that much. 

“You seemed out of it.” Sam murmured into Gabriel’s hair, his arms tightening protectively, holding Gabriel flush against his chest. “You were shaking. Putting you through a pretentious evening after that just seemed cruel. At least we still have dessert.” Sam nudged the box sitting next to them on the ground. 

Gabriel was speechless as he sat inside Sam’s tight embrace. Sure they’d been spending a lot of time together, and sure Sam was always more perceptive than Gabriel was comfortable with, but how did he know Gabriel would be feeling rather fragile without even knowing the cause of his little episode in the first place? Was it fate? Was it meant to be? Did Sam just know, like a Fairy Godmother would, and with the wave of a magical wand made Gabriel’s fears dissipate into thin air?

“Hey...I can hear you thinking.” Sam breathed into Gabriel’s hair, causing his scalp to tingle. “Does it hurt?” 

Gabriel snorted, and in that moment all tension flowed from him like water. He sagged back, sinking deeper into Sam as he gripped the edges of the blanket closed around them. They must look comical, two floating heads atop a teepee of blankets and awkward legs, but Gabriel had never felt more at ease. He looked up, his head flopping down onto Sam’s shoulder, and gazed at the stars once more.

“It’s so beautiful out here.”

“Yeah...Dean and I used to come here a lot when we were younger. He’d steal dad’s booze and his Impala and we’d get drunk here.” Sam pressed his lips against Gabriel’s cheek, his words tickled Gabriel’s skin. 

“His booze AND his car?”

“Yeah,” Sam chuckled. “Dad used to get mad, but then he realized it was easier to drive out early in the morning and blow air horns at us until our skulls split.” Sam fell silent at the memory. Gabriel felt the feather light kisses of Sam’s eye lashes as the younger man blinked hard. 

“Sounds like a smart dad.”

“Yeah he was the best.”

Sam did not offer more, and Gabriel did not pry. Whatever painful memory it was, Sam would share with Gabriel when he was ready. Sam shifted behind Gabriel once more, this time pulling the smaller man down as he laid back on the cold blanket. The ground was hard but Sam was warm, his body pliant as he gathered Gabriel into him once more. 

“If it wasn’t so goddamn cold I’d say this makes for a pretty good first date yeah?” Sam’s tone became lighter as he snuggled close to Gabriel. His voice wavered a little, the only indication that the cold was finally getting to him.

“Yeah, perfect for July, not so much a February thing.” Gabriel chuckled and burrowed down further. The wool blanket was scratchy against his cheek, but it was warm and Gabriel was thankful for that. 

The cold ground leached heat from their bodies until neither of them could hold out any longer. Gabriel whined when Sam finally sat up, taking the blanket with him, and wrapped his arms around Sam’s thick torso while burying his face into the tall man’s lap. Sam laughed as he tried to pry Gabriel off him, but his laughter turned to a nervous chuckle and Gabriel was suddenly very aware of a growing bulge nestled against his nose. 

His first thought was to jump off, but something about the way Sam shifted nervously made him hold his ground. Gabriel stopped struggling and looked up, amber eyes catching smokey greys and held them. Sam cleared his throat as he tried to look away, his cheeks were tinted pink and Gabriel bet it wasn’t all from the cold either.

“Hmm looks like you’re not so cold after all.” Gabriel teased, his lips brushed against the bulge. Was it on purpose? 

“...Gabe…” Sam cleared his throat and tried once more to pry Gabriel off his lap. He wasn’t trying very hard. 

Gabriel tightened his hold on Sam and nuzzled the bulge between Sam’s legs lazily, his nose catching the bottom of the tent before pushing his way up. He felt the heat radiating through the fabric and his mouth watered as he imagined the taste of the treasure hidden behind these cotton confines. 

He grew bolder as he continued the slow torture, bringing his nose down the covered shaft, only to drag his teeth up along it again. Gabriel watched as emotions played across Sam’s face, watched as his brows furrowed into the tiniest of frowns as Sam resisted the urge to reach for a handful of Gabriel’s hair. Gabriel smiled, he was finally in his element, and although a small part of him had wanted to take things slow, the heat in his own growing tent was drowning out all thoughts of reason. 

Gabriel reached up and wrapped a hand around Sam’s erection through his slacks, he could see a dark spot appearing, soaking through the fabric as Sam’s painfully hard cock started leaking. Sam drew a sharp breath and gripped Gabriel’s arms tightly, almost painfully, and dragged the man up into his lap until their eyes were level. Gabriel gave a surprised squeak as he felt himself pulled up, and blinked in surprise and frustration when he was denied his new favourite toy. 

“Sam…” Gabriel whined as a sliver of fear touched him. Was Sam rejecting him?

“There is nothing I want to do more right now than be with you Gabe.” Sam whispered, his voice thick and husky. “But if you unzip me right now I swear my balls will literally freeze off.” Sam was dead serious as he stared into Gabriel’s eyes. There was definitely longing there, swirled with lust and need so strong it made Gabriel groan out loud. 

But he was also feeling the cold seeping into his bones. Quickly the smaller man scrambled to his feet and grabbed the cardboard box while Sam rolled up the blankets. By the time they both got back to the car their teeth were chattering and their fingertips had turned blue. Sam turned the heater on full blast and had the seats heating while they blew warm air into their cupped hands. 

“T-Thanks Sam.” Gabriel whispered. 

“What for?” Sam said between blowing hot air to warm his fingers.

“Just...everything. For understanding.” Gabriel didn’t know how to put his gratitude into words, didn’t even know what he was thankful for. He only knew that Sam made him feel safe, feel grounded when everything else in his life had turned upside down. 

“Well, don’t thank me yet. You haven’t even tasted what I made for you.” Sam replied. It felt like Sam just knew, just understood without needing Gabriel to explain anything. He wasn’t pushy, wasn’t judgemental, he only gave and gave and never expected anything in return. It only made Gabriel want to give himself completely to Sam even more. 

And maybe he would, as soon as his goddamn fingers could move again. 

“We should get out of here. Maybe come back to my place for some hot chocolate and a movie?” 

“That’s perfect. Jess has Benny over for dinner and she made it very clear I was not welcome home until at least midnight.” Sam rubbed his hands together once more before wrapping his fingers around the steering wheel, giving his grip a test. 

“Alright then, it’s a date.” Gabriel smiled a lopsided grin and grabbed a blanket to huddle under. The car began moving as Gabriel burrowed further into the blanket, it smelled like winter and frost and Sam. It was a smell he could get used to, Gabriel thought as his eyes grew heavy.


	8. Chapter 8

“So, you and Sam are officially a couple now?” Castiel asked around a mouthful of maple glazed ham.

“You jealous?” Gabriel replied with a smirk. 

“Na, not really my type.” Castiel laughed and gave his older brother a side hug before going back to his dinner. After the drunken stint Gabriel pulled at his office Castiel was worried his older brother would drink himself into a downward spiral. It was good to see Gabriel so happy, it was also good to know that Gabriel was capable of love outside of his family and his shop. 

It was the Easter long weekend and the whole family was gathered at Gabriel’s parents’ house. The Novaks filled the dinner table, with Gabriel’s father sitting at the head. His eldest brother, Michael, and his larger family of five sat to the right. Raphael, the second oldest, sat to the left with his family and Gabriel and Castiel. Their mother closed off the circle with her seated at the other end of the table. 

Gabriel had offered to cook Easter dinner, having picked up numerous cooking tricks and new recipes from _What Does the Moose Say_. He slaved away in the kitchen for most of the day and was extremely pleased as he watched his family dig into the ham with all the trimmings. 

“Hnnng Gabe,” his mother moaned around a mouthful of candied carrots. “You’ll need to give me the recipe for this.”

“Sure thing mom, it’s all on _What Does the Moose Say_.” Gabriel replied.

“Or mom, you could just ask Gabe to bring his boyfriend around and cook for us all.” Castiel interjected with a smirk. 

Gabriel gave his little brother a kick under the table and hid his smile around a mouthful of sweet potato purée. 

“Uncle Gabe, uncle Gabe!” Sarah, Michael’s oldest, waved her fork and beamed at Gabriel, showing off the gap where her front teeth should have been. “Did you bring it?!” 

“You know I did.” Gabriel winked.

“Oh jeez, we’re not going to get any sleep tonight...” Michael put down his fork and looked slightly mortified. 

“Hey, I gotta earn the favourite uncle award somehow.” Gabriel flashed Michael a cheeky smile before turning to his niece. “You come see uncle Gabe after dinner and he’ll hook you up.” Gabriel winked at her before going back to his dinner. 

Every year at family gatherings Gabriel would bring all sorts of treats and candies for his nieces and nephew. They loved him for it, but not so much their parents. After all dealing with kids pumped full of sugar was like herding cats on catnip. 

“How’s the job hunting going Gabriel?” Raphael’s smooth voice rang loudly above the buzz of random chatter. Silence fell around the dinner table like a blanket.

Gabriel chewed on his bottom lip as shame burned his cheeks. “Well, I’ve been looking…”

“It’s been four months Gabriel, if you were seriously looking you’d have found something already.” Raphael spoke softly, his voice laced with a trace of boredom and disdain; it made every word cut just that much deeper into his little brother. 

Gabriel’s hands balled into fists as he tried to control the string of obscenities on the tip of his tongue. His mother reached over and covered a small gentle hand over his white knuckles. “I’m just still looking to find something I enjoy is all.” Gabriel said through gritted teeth. 

“And you were planning on doing this by fooling around with some college boy and his stupid little YouTube show? You’re turning thirty in a couple of months, isn’t it time to grow up?”

“You leave Sam out of this.” His mother’s grip tightened around his fist, it was the only thing keeping Gabriel from getting up and knocking the impassive look from Raphael’s face. 

“What if I don’t? What are you going to do about it?” Raphael sneered, a trace of triumphant glint in his eyes. 

“You prick!” Gabriel pulled his hand from under his mother’s hold and jumped out of his seat, the chair falling over with a loud crack. Joseph, Michael’s youngest, began to cry as Gabriel tried to climb over Castiel, his fist waving. 

“That’s ENOUGH!” Their father’s voice roared over the cacophony. “Raphael, we don’t need this kind of negativity at the dinner table.”

“Someone needs to remind him that life goes on even if his precious little store is gone.” Raphael replied, his voice calm once more. Castiel winced and Michael looked like he was ready to give Raphael a piece of his mind. 

“That may be the case, but it doesn’t need to happen during Easter dinner.” His father said before turning his gaze to Gabriel. “Raphael is right though, son. You have got to pick yourself up already.”

“I don’t believe this.” Gabriel muttered quietly to himself. He was once again seated at the table, but his appetite was gone. All he wanted to do was drive over to Sam’s and crawl into his lap. “Dad, I’m doing things.”

“Oh yeah, like what?” Raphael cut in quickly, earning him a stern look from his father. 

“Sam and I have started a petition to save the block.” Gabriel hadn’t wanted to share this with his family, they would think he was hanging on instead of moving on. Well, maybe he was, but it was Sam’s idea and Gabriel saw no harm in trying. 

“Seriously? You’re wasting time on this instead of looking for a real job?” Raphael just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “Just how much longer were you planning on living off of our tax dollars?” 

“Raphael, one more word and you can be excused.” Raphael shrunk under their father’s icy stare, but he smiled triumphantly as he sat back in his chair. Ever since they were little Gabriel had been the eccentric one, but that never stopped everyone from loving him. Raphael could never understand why it was okay for his little brother to follow his dreams, but not alright for him and Michael to do the same. Even though Raphael loved his family, the bitterness never left him even after all these years.

Seeing the hurt behind Gabriel’s eyes was bittersweet as guilt ate at Raphael. Maybe he was just a bit too harsh. 

“I’m not on welfare.” Gabriel spat out the words like poison before dropping his napkin on the table. “I’m done. Enjoy the food guys.” Without a backwards glance Gabriel left the dinner table and beelined for his coat. 

He shook off the hand that grabbed his arm by the front door and turned to see Castiel on his heels, his expression pinched with worry. “Don’t fucking listen to him, you know how Raf can be sometimes.”

“Yeah, but I’m not going to sit there and take his shit.” Gabriel didn’t want to be there, didn’t need to see the pity in his mother’s eyes. Didn’t need his little brother to console him. 

“At least finish dinner?” Castiel pleaded.

“There will be other dinners.” Gabriel forced a smile. 

A tiny form walked out from behind Castiel timidly, her chubby arms tucked behind her back as she picked at the ribbon tied behind her holiday dress. “Uncle Gabe?” Anna, Raphael’s daughter called out, her voice thin and fragile, the frightened expression on her face made her look younger than her three years.

Gabriel gazed at the little girl and suddenly felt exhausted. As much as he hated his brother he was still family. With a deep sigh Gabriel bent over and picked up little Anna and felt the tension leave him when her tiny little arms wrapped themselves around his neck. Maybe Raphael was a big bag of dicks, but his daughter was the sweetest little angel Gabriel knew. 

He carried Anna back to the dinner table and set her down in her booster chair before taking his seat once more. Raphael looked embarrassed but no one said anything as the sound of silverware clinking against china resumed in the dining room. Michael began telling a story about a client at work and the moment of upset seemed to smooth over. 

Gabriel stayed just long enough after dinner to hand out candies to his nieces and nephew before leaving his family to their holiday festivities. He wanted nothing more than Sam’s arms around him at that very moment, but Sam was busy with his own family, so Gabriel settled with sending his boyfriend a hasty text message before driving home. 

===

Gabriel was already in bed, the giant book of fairy tales resting on his propped up knees when his phone buzzed on the nightstand. His face broke into a warm smile when he saw the caller. 

“Hey Sammy.” 

“Don’t you start with that Sammy bullshit too.” Sam’s voice came through the tiny speakers.

“Well, it’s Sammy or Gigantor, you choose.” 

“Dick move Gabe. Anyway, got your text. Sorry I couldn’t call earlier, Dean and Bobby were ganging up on me playing drunken twenty questions.” Sam sounded both amused and somewhat scarred. Gabriel could only guess what the questions were about. 

“Don’t worry about it. I assumed you’d be busy with family.”

“Are you okay?” Sam was never one for beating around the bushes it seemed. 

“I’m fine.” Gabriel lied. No, he was not fine, he missed Sam.

“And I’m five feet tall, don’t lie Gabe, what’s wrong?” There was genuine concern in Sam’s voice. It made Gabriel feel warm and fuzzy, and suddenly he really did feel fine. 

“Okay, I wasn’t fine, but I am now.” Gabriel didn’t want Sam to know about the animosity he shared with Raphael. Sam loved his brother, he wouldn’t understand. 

“You know you can talk to me right?” Sam replied dubiously.  
“I know.” Gabriel smiled into the phone.

“I miss you.” Gabriel was glad Sam decided to drop the subject, he was even happier to know that Sam missed him as much as he missed Sam.

“Miss you too.” He murmured into the phone. “I tried your maple glazed ham recipe for dinner. It was delicious as always, and mom’s hounding me for the secret to your candied carrots.”

“Oh yeah? That’s awesome! Oh also I brought up the petition over dinner. Dean thinks it’s a great idea and suggested we hold some sort of a raise awareness event. Ellen offered to host us at her bar if we decide to organize anything.”

“Seriously? That sounds amazing!” Gabriel didn’t bring up his family’s reaction when he brought up the petition.

“Yeah! Bobby was all for it too and got real passionate after downing a few fingers of whiskey. He runs his own auto shop so he knows how it feels...” Sam trailed off for a moment. He knew how much it still hurt Gabriel whenever they talked about his shop. “Anyway, wish you were here with me…”

Gabriel swallowed as he sank down into the warmth of his bed, his head resting on his pillow. He recognised the whine in Sam’s voice, it was the same tone he used to mutter Gabriel’s name when they parted after kissing up a storm. They had been taking things slow, both of them savouring the build up rather than rushing into things, but there were times, after a messy make out session paired with heavy petting, where Gabriel just wanted to rip Sam’s clothes off with his teeth and have his way with him. 

“Well...where are you?” Gabriel’s voice was low.

“Uh...still at Bobby’s, in the room I shared with Dean.” Sam said cautiously. “Dean’s passed out on his side of the room.” He followed up quickly, his voice a warning and a plea. 

“Oh...well then that would make things interesting.” Gabriel chuckled into the phone. “You could always imagine me there with you, tucked away in your bed hidden under your blankets. Just so you know, your brother wouldn’t see.”

Gabriel heard Sam groan, then the slap of what sounded like a hand over his mouth. 

“Yeah, just think, me under your covers as I crawl between your legs, my chin resting on your thigh.” Gabriel closed his eyes and imagined just that. He felt his cock stir between his legs and smiled as he reached a hand down to stroke himself to life. 

“G-Gabe…! Don’t!” Sam’s voice was stern, but it was also laced with something else. 

“That’s what you’d say to me when I grip your hips and nuzzle your cock through your pants.” Gabriel began describing the scene playing out in his mind. He was going to go into graphic detail whether Sam liked it or not. “Imagine Sammy, my fingers digging into your hips as I nudge your cock to life. My teeth dragging along your shaft through your pants as it got harder and harder.”

Sam groaned, the sound muffled by what Gabriel guessed was his hand. “Yeah babe, that’s the sound you’d make. You’ll have to be quiet though, don’t want to wake up your big brother. Now imagine my lips tracing the bulge between your pants, my tongue pushing against the underside.” 

Gabriel heard the rustling of fabric and imagined Sam pushing his pants down his hips. “Are you hard Sammy?”

“...Yes.”

“Will you touch it for me?” 

“...Gabe…” Sam whined softly. “Please…”

“Touch it for me Sam.” Gabriel smiled wider at the hiss of breath over the phone. “Good boy. Now stroke yourself slowly, from base to tip, then give your head a nice squeeze. Imagine my tongue pushing against the slit as my lips clamp down around your cock Sammy.”

The sound of hitched breathing could be heard as Sam tried to keep his voice down. Gabriel imagined Sam’s large hand wrapped around his rock hard cock, imagined Sam’s brows pinched in concentration, imagined Sam’s large shoulders hunched over and his stomach clenching with need and arousal. The picture in his mind’s eye was enough to make Gabriel groan. 

“G-Gabe...don’t sound so fucking sexy…” Sam whispered on the phone breathlessly. “It’s n-not fair…”

“Oh hun, do I look like I’m playing fair?” Gabriel chuckled low into the phone before letting out a long, drawn-out moan. “Can you guess what I’m doing? Hmm probably not. Let me tell you.”

Sam whimpered. 

“I’m laying in bed, naked, with your fairy tale book on my lap on top of the duvet. I’m so damn hard for you Sammy, and as I’m stroking myself all I can think about is how good you must look with your pants pushed down your hips, your fingers wrapped around your thick hard cock listening to my voice.” There was the sound of swallowing from the other end of the phone. “I’m so incredibly hard Sammy, my cock is slick with pre-cum and I’m stroking myself faster, and harder, and all I want is to feel your cock inside me, feel you bottom out in me while I jerked myself stupid.”

“Gabe…”

“I know we haven’t done it yet, but I bet you’ll feel amazing.” Gabriel’s voice took on a teasing tone, dragging the last word out to end in a breathy moan. “Are you imagining all these things too Sammy?”

“Y-Yes...fuck Gabe, don’t…”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t s-stop…” 

“Stop what? I haven’t done anything.” He smiled evilly into the phone.

“God...Gabriel…” Gabriel shivered as Sam called out his full name. 

“Imagine me bouncing in your lap Sam, imagine that’s my heat around your cock milking you. Can you do that and come for me?” Gabriel’s voice was soft once more, his own fingers stroking and pulling, twisting and pinching until a slow pressure began pushing upwards. 

“Yes...yes Gabriel...oh God yes yes yes yes…” Sam tried to keep his voice low as he choked back a strangled cry. His breathing came in ragged and for a second it stopped altogether. Gabriel gripped the base of his cock tightly, holding back his own release as he listened to Sam. 

“F-Fuck Gabe…” Sam sounded wrecked, and Gabriel could almost see the his rosy cheeks and glazed eyes. The mental image, coupled with Sam’s struggle to keep breathing pushed Gabriel over. Rope after rope of thick cum splashed against the inside of his duvet and landed on his stomach. 

Gabriel sagged into his mattress and tried to collect his orgasm scattered brain. He could still hear Sam from the other end, the young man’s breathing becoming more normal by the minute. “God Gabriel, you’re the devil that wears an angel’s face-”

“Sam? What’s going on?” Gabriel choked back a squeal when Dean’s slurred voice floated through the speakers. 

“Fuck…! N-Nothing Dean! Go back to sleep!” Sam stumbled over his words as he tried to cover himself with his blanket.

“Jesus Sammy, get a room!” Dean grunted before turning over, within moments he was asleep again. 

“Well…” Gabriel started but couldn’t help the snort that escaped his lips. “I guess I better let you get cleaned up…”

“I’m so going to get you for this.” Sam whispered into the phone.

“I look forward to it.” Gabriel hung up before Sam could reply. He looked down his blanket and groaned, he was going to have to change the sheets before going to sleep, but it was worth it. God, Sam was worth a million loads of laundry.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the late update! School started for me last week and things seem to be going in at full force. I will try my best to update at least once a week, if not twice! Thanks for being patient with me!

“You know,” Gabriel muttered. “We never did anything for Valentine’s day.” He looked up from Sam’s lap, his head resting on the taller man’s thigh. It was Friday night and Gabriel had invited himself over for dinner and a movie. They were watching _My Bloody Valentine_ , snuggled up on the couch, with Sam leaning back against the arm and Gabriel sprawled out using Sam’s leg as a pillow. “Also, doesn’t this lead guy look a lot like your brother?” Gabriel looked from the TV to the picture – a smiling Sam hugging a shorter man with dirty blonde hair – sitting on the end table. 

“Yeah, Jensen Ackles I think? Dean hates it when we tease him about it.” Sam ran long fingers through Gabriel’s hair absentmindedly, enjoying the warmth of their bodies piled up more than the movie. “And you’re right, didn’t we shoot a video that day? Does that make me a terrible boyfriend?” Sam pouted and let the corners of his eyes droop with practise ease; it was terrifying how easily Sam could pull out those puppy dog eyes of doom.

“Well...maybe you’ll have to make it up to me on your birthday.” Gabriel purred seductively. 

“Wait what,” Sam’s puppy dog eyes wavered. “It’s my birthday, shouldn’t you do something for me?” He paused for a second and frowned. “Also, how the hell did you know it was my birthday soon?”

“Do not underestimate the power of fangirls,” Gabriel said with a shudder. “All I had to do was google Sam Winchester and there are Tumblrs out there with more information about you than I care to know. Apparently you have a mole on your left butt cheek?” 

“What? No! I do not!” Sam looked horrified. 

“No? I guess I’ll have to find out one day.” Gabriel laughed and snuggled down further into Sam’s lap. “But May 2nd is your birthday yeah?” 

“...Yes. How do they even now this. I don’t recall posting anything about thi-oh shit.” A moment of clarity shown in those grey eyes. 

“What?”

“When I first started I’d linked my personal Facebook account. I didn’t think it would get so popular. I’ve long since taken my Facebook link down…”

“Seems like you’ve got some die hard fans.” Gabriel frowned, he didn’t even know Sam HAD a Facebook account; he didn’t like the idea of others knowing more about his boyfriend than he did. 

Sam heard the trace of jealousy in Gabriel’s voice and grinned. “Someone’s jealous.” How was he leaning over like that? For a man his size he was surprisingly flexible, Gabriel mused as Sam’s lips brushed against his. 

Gabriel reached up and cupped Sam’s cheeks, guiding the young man’s lips against his. His tongue licked along the seams of Sam’s lips before pushing past those plump petals to taste Sam’s mouth. Someone moaned, the sound soft and breathy, and then Sam was suddenly on top of Gabriel, his weight bearing down on the smaller man as they both sank deeper into the couch. 

A scream pierced through their breathless moans and both men looked up in time to see a pickaxe sink into a man’s skull. 

“Man, this is like the sexiest movie ever,” Gabriel chuckled, his fingers still tracing Sam’s jaw and cheek.

“Hey, at least the woman’s naked,” Sam countered cheekily as he pointed at the screen. The woman, whose scream so rudely interrupted their kiss was standing in the parking lot naked, still screaming, before turning around to run back into the motel. Following her was a man in a gas mask, holding a pickaxe. 

“This is so cheesy,” Gabriel said as he clutched Sam closer to him. He was never one for scary movies, but Gabriel didn’t want to appear weak, so when Sam chose the movie he just rolled with it. 

“You’re looking a little scared, Gabe.” Sam nuzzled Gabriel’s neck, his lips tracing tender skin until they reached the hollow of Gabriel’s collar bone. 

“I’m not scared…” Gabriel swallowed as his attention was pulled from the movie back to Sam, or more specifically, Sam’s lips and tongue. 

They spent the rest of the movie tangled on the couch, with Sam pressing firmly down on top of Gabriel. Their lips were busy rediscovering the taste of each other’s mouths and skin until Gabriel was dizzy with need. Sam pulled back when the credits began rolling, his kiss swollen lips glistening, with Gabriel’s taste still lingering. 

“So, we totally missed the movie…” Sam smirked.

“I’m sure Jensen Ackles didn’t mind.” 

Sam snorted as he pushed himself up and off Gabriel, his heart was pounding wildly in his ribcage and his jeans were ridiculously tight, but Sam didn’t want to push, and Gabriel seemed perfectly happy just sharing kisses until they were both drowning in the heady sensation. 

“I’m getting a beer, want one?” Sam asked as he stood up and adjusted his jeans, trying desperately to hide his arousal. 

“A beer sounds good.” Gabriel pulled his bottom lip between his teeth as he watched Sam’s failed attempt at hiding his discomfort. Sam’s cheeks were flushed, his hair stuck out in weird angles where Gabriel’s fingers had gripped and pulled. God but Sam was a sight to behold, and Gabriel could barely contain his desires as he watched the tall man stumble into the kitchen. 

Sam came back with two opened bottles of beers, he took a sip of his own as he handed Gabriel the second bottle before flopping down on the couch once more. He turned off the movie and put on some music before sitting back to enjoy his beer, hoping the cold liquid would put out the fire in the pit of his stomach. 

“So,” Sam cleared his throat. “The petition is going well, we have an insane amount of people signing it.”

“Most of them just want the off chance to talk to you.” Gabriel rolled the cold beer bottle between his hands as he leaned against Sam. “We have people from Egypt signing.”

“Hey, they’re here in spirit.” 

“I guess so. It just feels so pointless Sam.” Gabriel sighed and took a swig. 

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone’s sold already. I already paid off the bank. Even if they stop the project, I won’t have the money to buy the land back, and it’s gone up so much over the past ten years…” Gabriel felt his frustrations threaten to overwhelm him. He didn’t want to whine about it, Sam was working so hard promoting their cause online and offline, but Gabriel just didn’t see how it would help at this stage. 

“We can always set up a fundraiser. We can fight this Gabe.” Sam wrapped an arm around Gabriel’s shoulders, pulling the smaller man into him. “We have to try-”

“Sam…” Gabriel shimmied out from under Sam’s embrace and stood up. “I just...it’s been nearly five months. I can’t keep hanging onto this thread of hope that things might go back to the way they were. They won’t. You know this, I know this.”

“They still might. I’ve already talked to Ellen, she said she can hold a fundraiser event as long as each person coming buys a drink. We can set up a by donation cover and you and I can make all the foo-”

“Sam, please. Just stop.” Gabriel cut Sam off sharply. He felt like a leaking balloon and hated himself for giving up, for wanting to move on, but he couldn’t coast on his savings for much longer. He needed to get a job and get his life back on track. “I just can’t…”

“Gabe. Can we at least try?” Sam’s voice grew soft as he sat, looking up at Gabriel. “I mean, didn’t you say you were going to ask your family to help as well?” He did say that, but he never brought it up to his family again after Easter; Gabriel simply couldn’t deal with the sadness in his parents’ eyes and the snide remarks from Raphael anymore.

“No Sam, after what happened at Easter do you seriously think I could bring this up to them again?” Gabriel turned on Sam with a growl. “Besides, why Sam? Why do you even care so damn much?!” 

Sam gasped softly in surprise, but Gabriel missed the hiss of breath, or maybe he just chose to ignore it. “It’s fucking pointless, Maybe if we’d done this six months ago there might have been a chance. But now, now we’re just grasping at straws, and I just can’t DO this anymore.”

“Then why did you agree to it in the first place?” Sam’s voice dropped dangerously low. 

“I…” Gabriel closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying desperately to stay calm as he paced the small living room. “You seemed so hopeful. I couldn’t say no.” 

“So you’re just making a fool of me.” His voice dropped even lower. Sam gripped his knees until his knuckles turned white. “You think I’m just some stupid kid with some stupid ideals-”

“I just don’t want your pity Sam!” Gabriel shouted. 

“You think I’m doing this out of pity?!” Sam shouted back as he jumped out of his seat. 

“Aren’t you? Or do you honestly believe that you give a shit about those people? About Samuel? Missouri? What do you know Sam? How could you understand?!” Gabriel slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide with shock and immediate regret as he watched the colour drain from Sam’s face. 

They stared at each other as the silence stretched between them – Gabriel wide eyed and Sam stony faced – until Gabriel felt like he was miles and miles away from Sam. 

“Get out.”

“Sam…”

“Just get the fuck out, Gabriel.”  
Gabriel searched Sam’s face, but there was no shred of the Sam he knew and had come to love. It was his fault, he did this, and now he had to face up to the consequences of his outburst. Without another word Gabriel grabbed his coat and threw it over his shoulders. He turned as he reached the front door, his mouth open but no words came out. What would he say? He hurt Sam, hurt the only person in this world that believed that Gabriel could go back to being happy with a purpose again. 

“I’m sorry Sam…” 

There was no answer as the door closed behind Gabriel. 

===

Gabriel looked at his reflection in the mirror and sighed at what stared back at him. Castiel stuck his head into his walk in closet and smiled as he gave Gabriel an appreciative once over. 

“You clean up well.” 

“You sure this is a good idea?” Gabriel frowned and pulled at the borrowed tie pinching his neck. God business attire was so uncomfortable. 

“Don’t be nervous, you’ll do great.”

“I’m not nervous,” Gabriel snapped, it only earned him a knowing smile from Castiel. Sometimes his little brother was so damn annoying. Actually he was always so damn annoying. 

“Sure thing Gabe. Anyway, we should get going, you don’t want to be late for your interview now.” 

“Wait, you mean to tell me I don’t have this in the bag?” Gabriel followed Castiel out into his little brother’s bedroom. 

“Well, I’m sure it’s mostly in the bag, I mean you and I have the same education. But you’re a little out of practice.” Castiel grabbed his own jacket and motioned for Gabriel to follow him downstairs and through the garage door. 

“I still don’t see why I can’t drive myself,” Gabriel mumbled under his breath. “And why can’t I wear my own clothes?” He scrunched up his nose at the pair of plain black dress shoes Castiel had insisted on lending him. 

“Because one, if I let you drive, you’ll just chicken out en route. Two, you’re going to interview for an accounting job, not get hired as Chuck’s personal plaything,” Castiel replied with a roll of his crystal blue eyes. 

“Hey, not my fault he’s got the hots for me. Maybe I’ll make more on my knees than on my ass crunching numbers.” Gabriel smirked and waggled his eyebrows at Castiel.

“Seriously, that’s just gross.” Castiel’s lip twitched. “Besides, I’m sure Sam would have something to say about that.”

Gabriel’s chest clenched at the mention of Sam’s name. They hadn’t spoken since the fight over a week ago. Gabriel had felt himself falling apart piece by piece with each passing day, which was why he’d finally cracked and called Castiel, inquiring if the offer from his boss at the accounting firm was still on the table. 

Castiel noted the light go out of Gabriel’s eyes and sighed. “Are you two still not talking?”

“None of your damn business.” 

“You made it my business when you came pounding on my door at two in the morning last Saturday,” Castiel replied matter-of-factly. 

Gabriel bit back a snarky reply and swallowed. Castiel was right, he did exactly that by dragging his drunken ass to his little brother’s place after he’d left Sam’s apartment. “Well it’s not like he’s making an effort to talk to me.”

“And why would he?” Castiel countered, his blue eyes staring right through Gabriel. “You took his gift and spat on it, then threw it on the ground and stomped it into tiny little pieces.” Gabriel winced at the analogy. “Did you seriously expect him to come crawling to you?”

“But I–” 

“I know you can be stubborn sometimes Gabe, but seriously, don’t be stupid.” Castiel said as he got into behind the wheel of his SUV. “And get a move on, we’re going to be late.” 

Gabriel sighed and got into the passenger seat. They rode in silence as Castiel drove them both to the firm. It was early Tuesday morning but commuters were already clogging up the main thoroughfare. Did he really want to go back to being an accountant? Gabriel thought to himself as he stared out into the bleak morning. It had been so long, he wasn’t even sure if he could balance a simple ledger anymore. But of course he could, he always balanced his books before taking it to his accountant for Tricks and Treats. 

Gabriel twisted his hands in his lap as he began imagining life behind a desk. Conference calls, tax returns, cooking books (maybe not, after all he wasn’t going to work for a mobster) and just numbers, numbers, bylaws and more numbers. The thought grew and grew until the inside of the car felt way too damn small. 

Traffic stalled stalled as they stood boxed in from all four sides. There was a shortness to his breathing and sweat pricked the back of his neck. He could feel the warmth drain from the pit of his stomach as butterflies threatened to burst from his bellybutton. The feeling of falling hit suddenly and he didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to be stuck in a rat race he thought he’d finally gotten out of. Gabriel scrambled for the door handle and yanked at it with all his might as he tried to escape the confines of the vehicle. 

He heard Castiel’s voice, but it sounded far away and distorted, as if he was underwater. His fingers trembled and slipped on the handle, and for a moment Gabriel couldn’t figure out why the locked door wouldn’t open. He couldn’t breath as the edges of his vision began to blur, it made him pull and push at the door that much more desperately, needing to feel the coolness of fresh air on his clammy skin. 

The slap echoed loudly, the ringing stunned him more than the sting as Gabriel sat frozen in his seat, his hand still on the door handle. His cheek grew warm, and suddenly the sound of Castiel’s voice and car horns washed over him, jolting him out of the panicked stupor. 

“God, I’m sorry Gabe.” Castiel was apologizing, why was he apologizing? “You were freaking out and I couldn’t reach you. Are you okay?”

Gabriel reached up a hand and probed the tender flesh of his cheek. “I’m...I don’t know Cassie…” Gabriel looked at Castiel without really seeing him, he just wanted to crawl under his covers and sleep the day away, or go to Sam’s and help him with an episode. But no, he couldn’t go back to Sam’s, not after what he’d said, not after the way he’d hurt him. 

So Gabriel curled up in his seat, in the car, and shut his eyes. Where was his fairy godmother to zap away the confusion with the wave of a wand? Would his Prince Charming ever be able to kiss away the haze that clouded his mind? Would he ever have his happy ending? Gabriel laughed, the sound harsh and forced, when he remembered that fairy tales weren’t meant to have happy endings. 

Castiel was starting to panic, he’d never seen Gabriel this broken, this lost. With a soft curse he dialled his boss’ number, the phone rang twice before a voice came through. 

“Hey Cas.”

“Hey Chuck, I know you’re supposed to see Gabriel today–”

“Yeah, I’m pumped to have another Novak under my thumb.”

“About that, Gabriel’s...an emergency came up, can we reschedule?”

“Emergency? Is he all right?” Chuck’s voice grew serious. Castiel and Chuck had been close friends all through college, and the Novak family was like a second home to Chuck. If something was up, he wanted to be in the loop. 

“Uh, yeah, no. I don’t know, he’s life isn’t in danger if that’s what you mean.” Castiel stole a glance at his brother and sighed. 

“Come in when you can, and we can reschedule. Take a family day if you need to.”

“You sure?”

“The show will go on without you for one day Cas,” Chuck chuckled at his own joke. “Take care of Gabe and keep me in the loop yeah?” 

“Still not giving up on that writing dream of yours huh,” Castiel teased lightly. “Thanks Chuck. I’ll keep you posted.” 

Traffic was finally moving again as Castiel hung up. He glanced at his brother and sighed as he turned the car around, heading towards Gabriel’s apartment instead of work. Castiel had suspected that meeting Sam was the glue that kept Gabriel together, but he hadn’t realized just how much his older brother relied on Sam until now. 

Gabriel was a mess when he came knocking on his door a week ago. His breath had reeked of cheap alcohol and he walked with a limp. Gabriel wouldn’t tell Castiel what happened at first, but as the night sky grew pink and Gabriel finally settled down, he let slip that he’d had a fight with Sam and gotten himself into some trouble at a local bar. 

No amount of prying could get Gabriel to tell him what happened at the bar, only Gabriel kept on repeating that he deserved it for hurting Sam, deserved getting kicked out of Sam’s apartment for being a prick. Eventually the youngest Novak gave up and tucked his older brother in the guest room. Neither of them spoke of the night again. 

When Castiel finally got Gabriel undressed and into bed he was exhausted physically and mentally. He waited until Gabriel’s breathing became slow and even before closing the bedroom door behind him softly. The living room was just how he remembered, messy but not dirty, organized in a way only Gabriel understood. Castiel sat down on the couch and sighed for the millionth time that day. 

He glanced around the room and frowned. Gabriel had put away anything that would remind him of his store, which was to say pretty much everything. The walls were bare where pictures used to hang, the nails were still there and one could see the neat rectangle shaped sharp colour of the paint where the sun couldn’t hit. The shelves that held his candy recipe books were empty, and there was not a single piece of candy wrapper in sight. It was down right depressing. 

A stack of paper caught Castiel's attention as his eyes landed on the living room table. He reached for one and scanned the contents. Upon closer inspection he realised these were Sam’s YouTube show scripts. There were neat handwriting in the margins, indicators of camera angles and notes describing last minute changes. Castiel looked over at the small pile and realized they were all scripts. He had no idea Gabriel spent this much time over at Sam’s, but now it all made sense. 

Sam was the rock that kept Gabriel grounded, Sam gave Gabriel purpose. This was what Gabriel would have been like if he hadn’t met the young man so soon after losing his store; Castiel was both grateful and terrified by this realization. 

On tiptoes Castiel went back into Gabriel’s bedroom and fished out his brother’s cell phone from Gabriel’s discarded pants. He tried the password a few times, and whispered a thanks to the Man above when the lock screen faded. Castiel felt slightly guilty as he thumbed through Gabriel’s contact list, but one look at his brother’s face – his brows slightly furrowed even in sleep – and the guilt was replaced by determination. 

Once he found what he was looking for Castiel put the phone back and exited the room quietly. Only when he was back in the living room did he straighten out his back and stop walking like a cat burglar from an 80’s cartoon. He dialled the number saved in his own phone and waited.

“Hello?” 

“Hi Sam, my name is Castiel, I'm Gabriel’s brother.” Castiel took a deep breath. “We need to talk.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to mention that I now have two lovely ladies helping me beta. They both give me such awesome feedback and I'm truly, truly honoured and extremely lucky to have them both help me with my writing! You know who you are! 
> 
> Hopefully this chapter was worth the wait :)!!

Gabriel glanced at the clock on his bedside table and sighed as the hands struck twelve. It was officially May 2nd, Sam’s birthday, and he was spending it in bed, alone. He rolled over on his back and thumbed his phone for the millionth time that night, debating whether he should make the call or not. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but he was convinced that if Sam had wanted him back in his life then he would have made a move by now. 

His mind wandered as he closed his eyes, a hand draped over his forehead. Castiel hadn’t pushed him to go in for that interview again, and Gabriel was more than happy to hide out in his bedroom for as long as he could get away with. He shifted in bed and felt his knee nudge against something solid and hard. The great bible of fairy tales had been Gabriel’s only companion during his long hours in bed, and he had poured over the words, devouring them with a hunger and passion he didn’t know he possessed for anything outside of his shop. 

There were the usual suspects, the ones that Disney loved to shove down the throats of every child, but there were also others that he’d never heard of. It was these stories that kept him captivated well into the night. With a soft sigh he reached for the book and flipped it open, scanning the page that his bookmark lay across. The book was nearly done, despite Gabriel being a somewhat slow reader, and the thought of no longer having it was terrifying. What would he do after it was done? Would he finally have to face Sam just to return it? Or would he keep the book as some sort of a twisted reminder of what he could have had and had lost? 

Suddenly Gabriel didn’t feel like reading anymore, and slapped the book shut with more force than intended. Immediately he felt guilty, and ran a gentle, apologetic hand along the cover. 

“I’m so sorry, you didn’t deserve that.” Gabriel whispered out loud to the book, the words rolling from his tongue with an ease he did not expect. He looked at the cover and gripped the spine, and suddenly a dam broke inside him, words spilling out uncontrollably, the syllables tripping over themselves as he tried to say everything all at once.

He began apologizing to the aged pages, his fingers stroking the worn cover as tears gathered in his eyes. He doubted the book heard any of his words, but then again, they weren’t really intended for the inanimate object. They were all the words he’d wished he could have said to Sam. What felt like an endless wave of confessions poured out of him until he was a sobbing, quivering mess.

God. He was _so_ utterly pathetic. 

Somewhere to his left, buried under his blankets, his phone buzzed. Gabriel blinked as he recognized the ringtone he’s set for Sam. Why would Sam be calling him this late at night, or even be calling him at all? The phone continued to buzz as Gabriel broke out of his daze and scrambled to pick up. Please, please don’t let it go to voicemail. 

“H-Hello?”

“...Hey, Gabe.” Gabriel closed his eyes and swallowed. He hadn’t realised just how much he’d missed Sam’s voice until he’d finally heard it again. Better still, Sam didn’t sound mad. 

“Hi Sam.” 

“How...how are things?” 

“Things are...good.” 

“Good...um…” There was a pause on the other end, as if Sam was looking for the right words. “It’s my birthday today.”

“Yeah...I know,” Gabriel replied guiltily. “Happy birthday, kiddo.” 

“You know, it would be pretty lousy if my boyfriend didn’t totally do something special for me.” Sam’s voice was light, almost teasing. 

Gabriel’s chest swelled as he laid there and clenched a handful of soft cotton sheets. He took a deep breath, then let it out quietly. “Yeah, that would be pretty lousy of him, wouldn’t it?” 

“So, when am I coming over?” 

Gabriel bit the inside of his cheek, but decided that he’d already wasted too much time hiding and being afraid. It was time he let Sam know what he wanted. “I’m free now.”

“Now?” 

“Yes, now.”

There was a moment of silence on the other side. Gabriel held his breath and waited, his fingers picking at the spine of the book as he waited impatiently for Sam’s answer. Shit, was he too forward? Did he push his luck just a bit too hard? 

“Sure. Let me put on some pants, and I’ll be over in 20.” 

“Sounds good. See you soon.” 

Gabriel waited until Sam hung up, then sprung out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. He took the fastest shower in the history of the human race, brushing his teeth under the spray of hot water while rubbing shampoo bubbles out of his eyes. There was no time to shave, hopefully Sam wouldn’t mind stubble.

The front gate phone rang just as Gabriel finished hiding pizza boxes under the kitchen sink. He rang Sam into the lobby, then left the front door open while he ran back to the living room to dump the rest of the take out boxes into a giant garbage bag. How did he let his place turn into such a sty? 

Seconds after Gabriel threw the garbage back behind the couch, the bag sailing practically in slow motion to land with a rattle, the front door swung open, and he thanked the stars that he’d had the foresight to tie the bag first before tossing it. Sam closed the door behind him and locked it before turning back to face Gabriel, his smile was a little awkward and forced, his wide shoulders looking out of place in Gabriel’s small living room. 

“Hey,” Sam said shyly as he kicked off his shoes. 

“Hey yourself,” Gabriel replied equally shyly, and fidgeted. The two men half-smiled at each other until Gabriel finally came to his senses and pointed at his couch. “Uh, take a seat. Would you like something to drink?” Did he just slip into host mode? 

“Oh, uh, yeah.” Sam walked over to the couch and sat down, his shoulders hunched and his knees pinched together. He looked as nervous as Gabriel felt, and that notion made Gabriel feel just a tiny bit better. “I’ll, uh, have a water or something.” 

“You got it.” Gabriel was only too happy to have an excuse to leave the room. It was just so damn awkward, and suddenly having Sam over half past midnight seemed like a really bad idea. He grabbed two glasses from the cupboard and filled them with water, then took three deep breathes and counted to ten before going back into the living room. 

He handed Sam a glass and sat down on the other end of the couch. The silence was uncomfortable as they sipped at their waters. Gabriel kept stealing glances at Sam, his eyes darting away whenever it looked like Sam was going to catch his eyes. It was a while before they grew tired of the game and both spoke up almost simultaneously. 

“Thanks for coming over.”

“Thanks for having me over.” 

Gabriel chuckled and Sam smiled. The tension broke, and Gabriel’s spirits lifted higher than he thought possible. Seeing Sam smile brightened up the entire room, and Gabriel swore that the other man’s dimples were going to be the death of him. 

“So, that lousy boyfriend of yours, does he have anything planned?” Gabriel gave Sam a lopsided smile. 

“Not that I’m aware of.” Sam returned the grin with a cheeky smile of his own.

“Well, if he knows what’s good for him he’d better get his shit together.”

“I’m sure he’ll pull through.” Deep grey eyes trained on Gabriel, the gaze so intense and sincere that Gabriel had to look away in embarrassment. 

He felt the lump in his throat and swallowed. Somehow it seemed like Sam wasn’t just talking about his birthday, but rather that he believed Gabriel could pull himself out of this downward spiral he was in. Sam believed in him, even after how he’d let him down. Sam still believed that he could come out on top. 

Gabriel cleared his throat and drained his water before meeting Sam’s gaze once more, this time he felt no fear, only an immense amount of love that practically oozed out of him as he locked eyes with his boyfriend. “In fact, he was thinking about baking a cake. After all, what’s a birthday without a cake?” 

“Oh?” Sam arched a perfect brow at Gabriel. “He does know that I’m picky as hell when it comes to cakes, right?” 

“Oh, he’s aware.” Gabriel jumped out of his seat and went into the kitchen. He came back a minute later holding up a can of black beans and a bottle of raw clover honey and waggled his eyebrows. 

Sam snorted as he tried to be quiet, then decided to throw care for Gabriel’s neighbours to the wind as he barked out his laughter, because the face Gabriel was making was just too damn funny. 

“Are you trying to seduce me with black bean and honey?” 

“Maybe, is it working?”

“Not so much, but a cake might…” 

Sam stood up and closed the distance between them with sure, long strides. He stood towering over Gabriel for just a heartbeat longer before gathering the smaller man into his arms. He buried his nose in Gabriel’s hair and inhaled deeply, enjoying the fresh scent of his shampoo. 

“I’ve missed you…” He murmured into those fine silken locks, his breath tickling Gabriel’s scalp. 

“I’ve missed you too.” Gabriel wrapped his arms around Sam’s torso, still holding the cans of beans and jars of honey, and buried his face against Sam’s firm chest. For the first time in weeks he felt steady again, as if he’s just discovered solid ground beneath his feet once more. 

They held onto each other until Gabriel’s arms burned with fatigue. The cans and jars were starting to get pretty darn heavy. Sam took the containers from Gabriel and walked into the man’s small galley kitchen. He was pleasantly surprised to find that Gabriel had a lot of kitchen appliances, even if they weren’t top of the line KitchenAid brand. 

“May I?” Sam turned to Gabriel as his fingers lingered on the handles of the pantry. Gabriel gave him a nod as he leaned back against the counter. 

Sam pulled the doors open and blinked in shock. Gabriel’s pantry was almost a mirror image of his own. The shelves groaned under the weight of boxes and bags of coconut flour, rice flour, potato flour, sweet potato powder and even a few gluten free flour replacements even Sam had never used before. Next to the flours were rows upon rows of canned vegetables, coconut milk, different types of honey and other natural sweeteners. 

“Dude, you’re better stocked than me!” Sam turned to give Gabriel a look of absolute shock and amusement. 

“It’s hard to try and make all your recipes without the right stuff.” Gabriel shrugged and tried to play it cool, as if these were the types of things everyone kept in their pantries. “We could make a cake like I mentioned. I’m pretty sure I have everything.”

“What’s your favourite?” 

“It’s your birthday.” 

“Yeah, well, if I’m baking my own goddamn birthday cake, I want us both to enjoy it.” 

“I like chocolate. Anything chocolate is good.” 

“Do you have Kirsch?”

Gabriel stared blankly. “Do I have what?”

“Nevermind.” Sam laughed before sticking his head back in the pantry, digging until he found what he was looking for. 

“Coconut cream and...maraschino cherries?” Gabriel watched with his arms crossed as Sam raided his pantry.

“The cherries aren’t quite right, and you have no Kirsch, but I want Black Forest cake. This will have to do,” Sam said over his shoulder as he grabbed the bags of coconut, tapioca and almond flour in one hand and a bag of coconut sugar in the other. 

Gabriel got out of Sam’s way as the giant began pulling open drawers and looking into cupboards. He made himself at home, and only asked Gabriel for help when he couldn’t find something. Occasionally he got to help do the really boring jobs too, like scoop out the coconut cream and whip it until it turned fluffy. Whipped cream replacement sucks major dick to make, Gabriel thought to himself as his arm burned with fatigue. 

By the time Sam finally allowed himself a moment of rest, the cake was in the oven and the kitchen looked like a tornado had torn its way through. The counter was literally covered in a layer of coconut sugar from when the food processor had coughed during grinding, Gabriel had bumped the tapioca flour bag with his elbow while whipping the coconut cream, which had resulted in the bag of sugar tipping over and spilling over the edge of the counter onto the floor. And somehow there was even batter splattered on the cupboards. Gabriel seriously had no idea how that had happened.

Sam leaned against the counter and looked around apologetically. “Okay, I swear I’m usually not this messy.” 

“Sure you’re not,” Gabriel teased and leaned against the opposite counter, facing Sam. “I’ve seen your videos.” 

“Well, if your kitchen wasn’t so small...” Sam pouted.

“Well, if you weren’t so damn big.” Gabriel countered with a smirk. 

Sam reached over and grabbed Gabriel’s arm, yanking the smaller man into him, his long arms draped down Gabriel’s shoulders to lock around his back. Gabriel swallowed and looked up. Their faces were close as Sam leaned down, so close Gabriel could see the individual granules of sugar dusting Sam’s nose. 

The press of Sam’s lips was soft and tentative as he pressed gentle kisses against Gabriel’s lips, lingering briefly each time but never long enough to go further. Gabriel pressed closer as he tried to deepen the kiss, but Sam was having none of it and kept pulling back until Gabriel was practically plastered against his chest, balancing on tiptoes with fingers knotted around his shirt.

“Hmph...stop it,” Gabriel whined as he lunged, only to be thwarted once more. 

“Stop what? This?” Sam stood up straight, taking advantage of all his height and looked down, mischief in his eyes. He craned his neck backwards slightly as Gabriel strained upwards.

“Oh, dude that’s just not fair,” Gabriel whined louder. “Damn it! You know that’s not what I mean–”

Sam only smirked as he lowered his lips once more, capturing the rest of the words before they left Gabriel’s lips. He knew exactly what Gabriel wanted and was only too happy to give it to him this time. And honestly, if he were being truthful to himself, he could admit that he wanted it too.

His head spinning, Gabriel wove fingers into Sam’s soft hair, gripping and pulling, maneuvering Sam’s mouth deeper against his own so he could taste the taller man. He groaned against the taste of chocolate and cherry. God, how he had missed this. Having someone to hold him up, to catch him when he fell, someone to look after him and make everything alright. The rational part of his brain, or what was left of it, screamed at him how this was wrong, how it was unfair that he takes advantage of Sam like this. They had just reconciled, maybe taking it slower would be better. But the primal part of his brain, the one that _needed_ this as sure as he breathed air, squashed that angelic reasoning, crushed it into oblivion, and Gabriel surrendered.

He groaned against Sam’s mouth, his heartbeat a thundering tempo in his ears as Sam’s arms tightened almost painfully around his middle. He felt those dexterous fingers slide under his shirt, ghosting up his back, and he leaned further forwards as Sam shifted his legs. He felt the press of Sam’s arousal, hard and demanding, and the very sensation of it made him weak in the knees. Without breaking the kiss, Gabriel reached a hand between their bodies, his fingers ghosting over the bulge at Sam’s crotch, and squeezed gently. He felt Sam’s body jerk, a full-body shudder passing through him, and grinned against the taller man’s mouth. Testing his boldness, Gabriel ran one finger along the outline of Sam’s length through his jeans, and shivered in delight when Sam moaned throatily against him. 

Sam wavered, his head ducking and his lips parting on a gasp as his hips rocked forward against Gabriel’s palm. A light sheen of sweat broke out over his skin, and one hand fisted a handful of Gabriel’s shirt, holding him still. The other hand braced against the counter, gripping hard enough to turn the knuckles white. He realized the tiny whimpers he was hearing were his own, and he desperately locked eyes with the smaller man in front of him. Gabriel licked his lips, and, without breaking their gaze, reached a hand past Sam’s waistband. 

The initial contact was electrifying. Sam groaned out loud and threw his head back, cracking it against a low hanging cupboard. He swore under his breath, squeezing his eyes shut. Gabriel looked up with concern, but it didn’t look like the taller man was overly concerned as he pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, his hips jerking forwards, urging, begging for Gabriel to keep touching. 

Gabriel took a small step back and admired the man spread out against the edge of the kitchen counter. Sam’s lips were kiss swollen and glistening, and his broad chest heaved, his arms trembling and flexing with the effort of holding himself up. His knees were loose, long legs spread wide and inviting, and Gabriel had to bite back a groan as he reached for the front of Sam’s jeans again..

Making quick work of the button and zipper, Gabriel hastily pushed the denim down Sam’s thighs, past his knees, and into a bundle around his ankles. He nudged Sam’s leg, getting the taller man to shakily lift one foot, then the other, so Gabriel could completely remove the pants. When he tossed them to one side, he knelt in front of Sam, running a hand gently up one thigh, and looked up at the taller man. Sam’s eyes were blown wide with lust, the pupil so big the iris was barely a sliver around the outer edge. His breath came in ragged gasps, his cheeks flushed appealingly, and his whole body trembled. Gabriel felt his chest clench and it was an effort to breath for a moment. It was exhilarating to think that he had done that. That he was the reason for Sam’s lack of composure. 

Keeping their eyes locked, Gabriel leaned forward slowly, barely brushing the head of Sam’s cock with his tongue. Sam’s thighs quaked, and for a second Gabriel thought he’d fall over, but he managed to steady himself and urged Gabriel to keep going. Gabriel opened his mouth wider, easing down Sam’s length slowly, using one hand against the base as a guide. Just over half way, he swallowed, and nearly unhinged his jaw as he fought to take as much of Sam as he could. It was a struggle. To say the man was well-endowed was a vast understatement. The word python came to mind, and Gabriel very nearly giggled deliriously.

But he was determined. It took a few tries and there were definitely some tears courtesy of his gag reflex, but Gabriel allowed himself a small hum of victory when his nose was finally buried in the mass of coarse curls at the junction of Sam’s hips. He tried swallowing again, just to see if he could, and was rewarded by a somewhat strangled groan from above him.

Sam sagged against the counter as Gabriel hummed, the vibrations marching across sensitive nerves, and he felt his toes curl against the floor. Gabriel’s throat was just so damn tight, his mouth so damn wet, and _holysweetJesuspleasePLEASE_ could he do that thing with his tongue again as he pulled back before swallowing again. Sam reached for Gabriel’s hair and was rewarded with another wave of happy humming when his fingers curled against the other man’s scalp. He nearly unraveled when Gabriel did something particularly clever with his tongue while pulling back, and cupped one hand around his balls. 

Gabriel set the pace, hollowing his cheeks and clamping his lips like a vice as he moved his head back and forth. Using the edge of his teeth he dragged along Sam’s length on the pull-back and knew he’d found a weak spot when those long fingers flexed violently in his hair, Sam’s breathing turning ragged. Using this new trick, he doubled his efforts and felt Sam’s hips stutter. Saliva dripped from the corner of his lips to run down his chin, but Gabriel could care less about the mess as he felt Sam’s hips take on a life of their own. 

Before long Sam was thrusting into him, his cock hitting the back of his throat with increasing force. Gabriel gently braced his hands along Sam’s waist, and forced himself to relax and let Sam take his pleasures. He felt Sam’s hands grip either side of his head and winced when he thrust hard once, twice, before losing rhythm completely. There was a steady swell and pulse in his throat and there was a grunt of breath as Sam climaxed. 

Gabriel swallowed as quickly as he could, trying to ignore the screaming ache in his knees as Sam’s hips gradually slowed and stilled. When he stood up, he staggered against Sam, using the large man’s heavy chest to anchor himself. Sam was breathing hard, and stray locks of hair plastered against his sweaty skin. It took a moment before Sam came to his senses, and when he did he just pulled Gabriel into those long arms of his and crushed the man close. Gabriel did not miss the tremor in Sam’s limbs and grinned. 

“I’m sorry.” Gabriel murmured into Sam’s chest.

“What f-for?” Sam was still trying to catch his breath. 

“For being a jerk. For giving up. For being scared. For a lot of things.” Gabriel replied and buried his face deeper. “I’m sorry for using you.”

Sam pulled back and looked at Gabriel, confusion written across his open face. 

“I’ve needed you to ground me ever since the day we met. I’m a mess when you’re not around. I was too much of a coward to even make the call to tell you how much I missed you, and how sorry I was. I can’t keep doing that you Sammy,” Gabriel tried to smile, but gave up when his facial muscles refused to obey. “I’m done being afraid. Done running. I want to be your rock too.”

Sam’s expression softened, it was as if Gabriel was transforming right before his eyes. Sam had been unsure about reaching out even after his talk with Castiel, but suddenly it felt like the best decision he’d ever made. “We’ll be each other’s rocks, Gabe.” 

“I just want you to know...just how much you actually mean to me. How much this relationship means to me, and how I owe it to you and to myself to get real and stop running.” Gabriel held his breath as the words came tumbling out of him. If he stopped to breathe he was afraid he’d choke. 

“I know,” Sam hugged the small figure close to him. “After all you’ve already said the “L” word to me at least three times now. And I don’t mean lesbian.”

Gabriel blinked and pushed away from Sam, his eyes the size of saucers. “I--what!? When did I--what’re you--””

“Oh, yeah, I forgot. I never did show you that comment that started all of this. You really need to read it I think.” Sam smirked and pulled up his pants before going over to check on the cake.


	11. Chapter 11

If it wasn’t for the molten ring holding what looked like chocolate heaven, Gabriel would have gone after Sam, or jumped on him until the man gave up the secret location of his incriminating comment. Instead he leaned against the counter, arms crossed while his erection wilted rapidly as the horrors of Sam’s words sank in. Just what exactly did he _say_ in his drunken stupor? “God, I’m never going to drink again,” Gabriel muttered to himself quietly. 

“What was that?” Gabriel could _hear_ the smirk on Sam’s face and ignored it indignantly. 

“How did the cake turn out?” 

“Perfection. Let’s leave it to cool, then I can dress it.” Sam put the hot springform pan on top of some heat mats and leaned over to inhale deeply. 

He fussed a little around the cake, touching one gentle finger to the top just to watch the spongy cake spring back. Finally satisfied with his handy work, Sam turned and flashed Gabriel his pearly whites before dragging the smaller man out of the kitchen and into the living room. They sank into the couch, this time with Gabriel planted firmly on top of Sam as the large man stretched out lengthwise, his head resting on the arm. 

“Are you ever going to show me that stupid comment?” Gabriel feigned annoyance as he molded himself against Sam, his arms slipping around his thick torso. 

“Only if you ask nicely.” Sam sighed and closed his eyes, his arms looping around Gabriel’s slight shoulders.

“Please?” Maybe whining would work?

“That’s not asking nicely.” Nope. Damn.

“C’mon, it’s so not fair.” Gabriel pouted then nipped Sam’s collarbone, grinning when the larger man took a hissing breath and gave him a dirty look.

“Now who’s not being fair,” Sam chided, but there was no malice in his voice. 

“Two can play this game.” Gabriel grinned and nibbled along Sam’s bare flesh once more, his body scooting up along Sam’s as his lips and tongue planted a glistening trail of soft kisses along Sam’s throat.

“Keep this up–” Sam started, but his train of thought evaporated when Gabriel’s head dipped and his tongue flicked against the hollow at the base of his neck.

Gabriel’s lips continued their assault of feather light kisses until Sam felt he would burst. The gentle grind of Gabriel’s hips along his thigh was not lost on him as Sam tried to pin his squirmy body still. He felt the heady rush of blood and damn if his jeans didn’t become two sizes too small again. 

Suddenly there was nothing as a gust of cool air brought goosebumps to life on Sam’s heated skin. Gabriel pushed himself off the couch and ran a hand through his hair, smiling down at Sam until his eyes turned to little crescent moons. Sam’s eyes narrowed, but there was no hint of amusement there, only a glint of molten silver as he glared at Gabriel. “Oh that’s low.”

Sam lunged out of the couch, long, powerful arms wrapped themselves around Gabriel’s waist and they fell with a squeak and a loud crash. They wrestled alongside the small living room table – limbs bumping against sharp edges – until Sam was firmly planted on top of him with large hands clamped around each of Gabriel’s wrists. Long, wild hair fringed Sam’s square features and soft lamplight smoothed out the sharp angles of his chiseled jaw as he grinned triumphantly.

Gabriel was mesmerized.

The smile on Sam’s face faded, his eyes narrowed once more as gentle light reflected a hazel glow, and suddenly Gabriel felt a lump in his throat. He didn’t move when Sam’s lips brushed against his, couldn’t have even if he’d wanted to. It was like Sam had this hold over him and Gabriel was powerless to resist it. Was this how Sleeping Beauty felt when she was awakened from her slumber by the ghost of a kiss, her eyes blinking eternal sleep as her vision cleared up to drink in the love of her life? 

Damn, Gabe, not everything is a fairy tale. 

“No, this is not a fairy tale,” Sam whispered against Gabriel’s ear. Shit, did he say that out loud? “This is so much better.” 

Sam stayed over that night. With the cake forgotten, the two men stumbled into Gabriel’s bedroom with their lips locked and lungs burning for air. Someone’s hip knocked something over to crash against the hardwood floor, but neither paid the noise any attention as impatient fingers pulled at an offending mix of cotton, denim and polyester. There was the sound of a seam ripping as clothes were shed unceremoniously, then two naked bodies sank into the soft mattress, where limbs tangled in cotton sheets discovered the balance between dominance and submission. 

The last few things Gabriel’s muddled brain managed to process before blissful sleep claimed him was the loud banging of angry broomsticks from his neighbours, the warmth of Sam’s naked chest against his back, and the lazy freckle of dust illuminated by the ray of beautiful morning sunshine pouring through the crack of his curtains. 

===

“So, an accountant huh, Gabe?” Samuel said around a mouthful of peanuts, a pint of beer between his hands. 

“Yeah, thanks to Cassie.” Gabriel touched his tie almost self-consciously before taking a sip of his umbrella drink, his cheeks rosy from the alcohol and slight embarrassment. “A man’s gotta eat. We can’t all retire like someone here.” 

The two old friends had touched base briefly a few days ago over the phone, and decided that a drink was long overdue. They met at their usual hangout, a nice little pub called the Roadhouse run by Ellen, a middle aged woman with a bright sunny smile and her daughter, Jo. Gabriel insisted on buying the first round. 

“Retired life ain’t so bad,” Samuel smiled fondly at the younger man as he sat back in his chair. Gabriel was dressed smartly in his work attire, having swung by straight from the office. His sandy blond hair was combed back neatly, though he still wore it long. His suit jacket looked tailored, and his shirt looked freshly pressed. Samuel didn’t think the man even owned an iron. “You sure clean up nice.”

“And don’t you forget, you old goat.” Gabriel waggled an eyebrow at his friend. They sat in comfortable silence as the conversation petered out, and for a moment it almost felt like old times again. Gabriel and Samuel used to share a pint almost every weekend, sometimes they would share stories of the good, the bad and the ugly encounters from their day. Other times they’d sit in companionable silence and just watch the strangers that came and went, their lives forever touched by this chance moment in history where they all converged on this modest watering hole. 

Gabriel missed those days, and mentally kicked himself for waiting well over half a year before reaching out to the old man. 

“Something else is different.” Samuel watched Gabriel closely, his eyes narrowing in undisguised curiosity as he picked up on the subtle changes. Gabriel seemed calm and relaxed, his expression was almost serene as he looked over the thin crowd, this was not the same Gabriel Samuel last saw in his coffee shop, unsure and lost. 

“Well you’ve never seen me in a suit before,” Gabriel replied with a lopsided grin, his eyes narrowing into slits. 

“No, not that, you’re happy.”

“Gee, thanks, and who made you my therapist?” Gabriel took a long sip of his drink, cringing when the little blue umbrella swung and hit him in the face. What the hell, was the whole damn world out to mock him?

“Hey, it’s a good thing you know. You deserve some happiness.” Samuel tried to hide the grin that tugged at the corners of his lips. 

Gabriel nodded, his expression softening as he thought of the source of his happiness. “I am pretty damn happy, yeah.” 

They sat in silence once more, with the sound of crunching peanuts interrupting their bubble of tranquility that existed in the hubbub of random conversations around them. Samuel finished his beer and ordered another. Gabriel played with the little umbrella from his fancy drink glass, toying with the idea of ordering another as well when Samuel spoke. 

“It’s the cake boy isn’t it.” Gabriel spluttered and dropped the umbrella. Samuel only smiled slyly as the waitress brought his beer. 

“I’ll have another as well,” Gabriel called out to the pretty red head, avoiding Samuel’s knowing gaze for as long as possible. 

“It is, isn’t it?” Samuel pressed. It was rare to see Gabriel squirm, the man usually made a joke of everything. 

“Well, yes. I mean, no. Okay yes...maybe…” 

“So which is it then? Yes, no, or maybe?”

“Jesus...yes, okay, _yes!_ ” Gabriel replied in exasperation. 

“See, was that so hard?” Samuel picked up his pint and paused, studying Gabriel’s flustered face closely. “If I recall correctly, he was quite imposing too. And we all know what they say about men with large hands.” 

Gabriel choked on his drink, the alcohol coursing through his sinuses made his eyes water and burn as he coughed and spluttered. When he finally caught his breath, Gabriel was red in the face and if looks could kill, Samuel would have been a cooling corpse on the dirty bar floor. Alas, his death ray stare did not have the desired killing effects, so Gabriel could only sulk as he dabbed a napkin at the droplets of liquid on his trousers. 

After that first night, where Gabriel’s parents’ house warming gift of an antique vase was sacrificed in the name of lust, the lovebirds had been busier than rabbits in heat. There was no surface in Gabriel’s apartment that was sacred anymore, and Jessica’s bed was the only spot not sanctioned by their passion at Sam’s. Yet. Yes, that meant even Sam’s giant, pristine kitchen was not spared of their carnal desires. 

Samuel watched Gabriel expectantly, that infuriating little smirk hovering just out of sight. Gabriel loosened his tie and drained half of his second drink before looking Samuel in the eyes again. “Yeah, well, what they say is true.”

 

It was Samuel’s turn to choke as beer snorted through his nose to land on his hand. “Thanks...for that mental image.”

“Hey!” Gabriel feigned indignance and crossed his arms, but he was smiling, smiling so hard his face hurt. 

“Okay, okay, I brought that upon myself,” Samuel muttered into his pint with a shake of his head.

They were two more drinks in before Gabriel finally called it a night. He had to be at a meeting with Chuck and Castiel early next morning, and really didn’t feel like dealing with either of them while nursing a sugar and alcohol induced hangover. They shared a man hug outside the pub, you know, one of those hugs that came with a lot of back thumping and arm squeezing, and Gabriel got an earful about not waiting so long again before calling. 

He watched as the old man walked down the street and into the cool summer night, turning to head home as Samuel disappeared around the corner when “Sexy and I Know It” blasted from his pant pocket. Gabriel grinned and answered the call without looking at the caller ID, there was only one man deserving of this song for a ringtone. 

“Hey, Moose!”

“Hey, Angel.” Gabriel scowled at the nickname. Sam thought it would be cute to call him by his namesake, after one particularly passionate night spent making a mess of Gabriel’s freshly laundered sheets. 

“I’m going to have to show you the devil in me, just so you’ll stop calling me that.” Gabriel threatened into his phone. 

“Oh I look forward to it.” Gabriel could almost hear the low growl in the back of Sam’s throat, almost see the darkening of his fair features at the promise of Gabriel’s words. 

“But, not before you show me that stupid comment,” Gabriel said slyly. 

“Dude, blackmail material that good, you’re going to need to give me something _extraordinary_ in return.” 

“How about I withhold sex?”

“If I wanted to date a chick with crazy eyes, I would have. Wait, you’re not a chick with crazy eyes are you?” 

Gabriel had to suppress the snort that threatened to bubble through his nose. He was already getting some weird looks from other pedestrians. After all a grown ass man laughing and giggling into his phone late at night while trying to walk straight did not spell upstanding citizen. At least his attire didn’t spell homeless. 

“Anyway, why are you calling me this late?” Gabriel cleared his throat and licked his lips. 

“Oh, nothing much really, I just wanted to let you know that I got the deal.”

Gabriel stopped dead in his tracks as his mouth hung open for what seemed like an eternity. It took his buzzed brain a moment to process the words, but eventually comprehension emerged from the other end of his thinking process and this time Gabriel did not hold back his jubilant laughter. “Shut the fuck up?!”

“Oh god, now you sound like a high school girl with crazy eyes.” Came Sam’s bubbling laughter as he tried to keep his voice straight. “Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?”

“Shove it, Moose, this is great news!” Gabriel snapped his jaw shut and grinned shyly to no one in particular. “You’ve been working so hard for this book deal, and it’s finally paying off.” 

“Yeah, I got the email not long ago, tomorrow I go in to sign, then I’ll start looking for an assistant so we can finally do a recipe run through, and then all the photography and...and oh God, Gabe,” Sam breathed quietly as if the news was sinking in for the first time. “It’s happening. I’m going to have a cook book.” 

“Yes, yes you are you adorable, passive aggressive, grass munching beast!” Maybe it was the alcohol still making its way through his system, but Gabriel felt like he was floating on clouds, as if he actually was the Archangel of old gliding on silent wings. Sam’s happiness was his happiness, and right now he was drunk on _it_ and his own well of pride that he felt for the man.

“I know you’re really busy these days...” 

Gabriel felt his smile falter for a moment and let out a small sigh. He was busy, ridiculously so, and he suspected that Castiel had something to do with it. After all, if Gabriel was too busy at work and too tired after work, then he would stop thinking about the gaping hole in his chest where his passion used to be.

“I’ll come by after work, after all tomorrow’s friday and I could use a dose of Sam,” Gabriel said softly into the phone. He shifted the little plastic case closer to his lips, as if trying to kiss the voice that drifted through the tiny speakers. 

“Sounds great. Jessica has something to tell us she says, and that dinner’s on her, so come by around 6:30?” Sam’s deep voice sounded distorted with the speaker pressed against his cheek and not his ear, but that didn’t bother Gabriel, after all he no longer needed the sound to remind him of what Sam sounded like. 

“Great, who can say no to free food?” Gabriel replied lightly. “Love you, kiddo.”

“Love you too, Angel. Good night.” 

===

When Gabriel stepped into the homey apartment, Sam, Jessica and her bear of a boyfriend, Benny, were already seated in the living room, the couch groaning under their combined weight. 

“You guys are early.” Gabriel said as he dropped his briefcase and jacket by the door before coming around and sinking into Sam’s lap, adding his weight to the pile. The couch squeaked, the sound eliciting an annoyed ‘tsk’ from the smaller man. 

“Sitting behind a desk all day is going to make you fat,” Sam joked as he darted in for a quick kiss. 

“If eating candy for over a decade didn’t make me fat,” Gabriel replied into the kiss, then giggled when Sam’s finger dug into his stomach. Okay, maybe he was putting on a few extra pounds around his middle. 

“You were saying?” Sam arched a brow mockingly. 

“I thought you were supposed to love me for what’s on the inside. You’re a shallow man Sam.” Gabriel teased, feigning hurt with an exaggerated pout. 

“Oh I still love you, and I love sinking my teeth into soft flesh.” Sam smirked.

“Okay guys, ew?” Jessica scrunched up her nose and gave Gabriel’s leg a shove with her brightly painted toes. 

“Ow? I did nothing!” Gabriel’s feigned hurt turned to feigned shock, the comical arch of his eyebrows making Jessica laugh. 

“Oh, I’ve missed you, Gabe.” Jessica pushed herself to her feet with a groan and gave Gabriel a quick hug before darting into the kitchen. 

Wonderful smells of garlic and tomato and cheese wafted out of the oven as she opened the door to check on the lasagna. Gabriel’s stomach grumbled and reminded him, not for the first time, just how unhappy it was with Gabriel for skipping lunch. 

“Something smells amazing,” Gabriel moaned and followed Jessica into the kitchen. The lasagna was resting on the counter while she was slicing up freshly baked garlic bread. 

“Could you help me with the table?” Jessica said without looking up. 

Gabriel nodded, then made a noise of acknowledgement before setting the dinner table for four. Then he helped with the salad before carrying the food to the table. Sam and Benny came by just as Gabriel finished setting down plates and utensils, and Jessica was right behind them with a bottle of red wine and four wine tumblers. 

“Wow, Jess, what’s with the wining and dining?” Sam took a sip of his wine before digging into his giant plate of salad. How this man survived on so much greenery was beyond Gabriel. 

Jessica pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and glanced at Benny, one hand reaching across the table to grip the man’s large fingers between her own slender ones. She cleared her throat, then took a sip of wine. 

“Benny and I have decided to move in together.” She said shyly while giving her boyfriend’s fingers a long squeeze. 

Sam’s fork paused halfway to his lips as he sat staring. Gabriel’s own food was forgotten for a moment, but he wasn’t staring at Jessica, he was looking at Sam, wondering how the man was going to take the news. 

“Well, I figure, you got the book deal, you’re going to need an assistant with real cooking skills. And he–” She glanced at Gabriel, “or she would need to be around a lot. So it made sense for me to move out and this person to move in. And Benny and I have been together for more than six months now, so he offered his place and I thought why not?” Jessica finished in a hurry, the abrupt lack of conversation shrouded them in silence. 

All eyes were trained on Sam as he put down his fork, his expression unreadable. Gabriel could almost see the gears turning in Sam’s head, and felt like he could almost feel the conflicting feelings swirling in Sam’s head. He was the kind of man that would be happy for his best friend, because Jessica seemed truly happy with Benny, but having her move away would make their usual video shootings more difficult, and not to mention Sam was going to miss his best friend dearly. 

The corners of Sam’s lips turned up into a soft, gentle smile. He reached across the table and clasped Jessica’s tiny hand in his larger ones and gave the fingers a long squeeze. “I’m happy for you. But only if you don’t shirk your part of the work! After all, I don’t have Gabe here to help with the videos anymore.” 

Gabriel saw the strain in Sam’s eyes, but said nothing as Jessica let out a small breath of relief. The scene before them was oddly domestic; Jessica was more like the little sister seeking permission to finally leave home, and Sam the big brother that forced himself to finally let go, because his little sister wasn’t so little anymore. 

It was odd, but it also felt like a family. 

The rest of the dinner went by without a hitch. They talked about the details of Sam’s book deal, the deadlines, and their plan on keeping the show going while Sam worked on his book. The lasagna was absolutely divine, and Jessica teased that the only reason her recipes never made it on the show was because there was nothing healthy about them. A second bottle of wine and three quarters of a giant homemade tiramisu later, Jessica and Benny bid their farewell, claiming they had a movie planned and that she was staying over at his place to make room for her stuff. 

Sam and Gabriel cleaned up after dinner in silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable silence, but there was definitely something in the air that wasn’t quite right. 

“Are you okay?” Gabriel asked softly as he placed a gentle hand on Sam’s shoulder. 

“Yeah…” The grey eyes that turned to look at Gabriel didn’t seem okay. 

“I’m happy for her, and she has a point. Your assistant is going to be here night and day. Makes more sense to have them move in.” Gabriel pulled Sam up from his kneeling position and moved to load the dishes. “Besides, I’ve been...thinking…”

Sam straightened to his full height and looked at Gabriel expectantly, his curiosity winning out over the news of Jessica moving. 

“I mean, you have six months to put together the book, right?” Gabriel swallowed, and poured soap into the slot inside the dishwasher door before closing it and pressing the start button. “I was thinking, you know, after the six months, after the assistant moves out and everything…” He trailed off, unable to bring himself to say the words he’d been toying with in his head all throughout dinner. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but now, now he wasn’t so sure. He felt like he was inviting himself into something he didn’t belong, that he was imposing. As old feelings of unease overwhelmed him and threatened to throw him off his feet, Sam, once again, came to his rescue. 

“Will you move in with me then? After all this is done?” Sam held his breath as the words left his lips. Was this what Gabriel had wanted to say? Did he guess right or did he just risk his relationship by asking the wrong question? Sam gripped the counter behind his back tightly, hiding the white of his knuckles as he willed his nerves to steel. 

The wave of relief washing over Gabriel knocked the breath out of him, and he couldn’t speak for a moment as he collected and put the little loose pieces of himself back together again. He looked up, and up, and up, until his golden gazed locked on cool silver grey.

“Of course I will.” Gabriel smiled brightly, then his eyes darkened and his smile turned into something devilish. “But first we should make good use of this golden opportunity.”

Sam looked at Gabriel in confusion as the smaller man took his hands and drew him down the hallway. They did not go straight to Sam’s room at the end of the hall, and suddenly Sam’s eyes widened in understanding as he felt himself dragged into Jessica’s room.


	12. Chapter 12

“This should be the last of it!” Came the squeaky, over-excited voice from Jessica’s newly vacated room. 

Sam brushed sweaty locks out of his eyes and dumped the box labelled “cookbooks and other things” down unceremoniously in the hallway. Gabriel looked up from the couch, an eyebrow arched amusingly over Sam’s copy of “Andersen's Fairy Tales.” They locked eyes, but Gabriel pretended to not notice Sam’s look of plea. 

“Thanks, Sam!” A girl with long blond hair and a smile so wide Gabriel was sure if she smiled any harder, her face would split in half, came bouncing out of Jessica’s– no her room. “This is going to be so am _aaaaaaaaazing_! I can’t wait to get started!” She pushed the box of cookbooks and “other things” into her room with her foot while gazing longingly up at Sam. The taller man grinned awkwardly and ran a hand through his lanky hair. 

“Uh, yeah Becky, why don’t you get settled, and we can get started tomorrow?” He said while backing up until his hip hit the bathroom door. “I’m going to get freshened up, then we’ll go over the schedule?” The bathroom door closed with a soft click as Gabriel snorted quietly behind his book. 

His nose was buried deep in “The Ugly Duckling” when he felt the couch dip. He looked up, a pair of navy blue eyes stared back at him with an intensity that made his skin crawl. She kept staring at him, her eyes narrowing then widening, then narrowing again as her head tilted to the side, as if she was trying to remember something.

“Hi?” Gabriel sat back and slipped a bookmark made of candy wrappers between the pages of his book.

“Hi, I’m Becky,” the girl with the wide blue eyes said matter-of-factly. “Becky Rosen.”

“Gabriel Novak.” Gabriel smiled warmly and reached out to shake her hand. She just looked at his out stretched palm, then back up at him once more. 

“Wait I know you,” Becky’s voice dropped a pitch, which was to say it was still immensely squeaky. “I’ve seen you around that horrible candy shop!” 

“Excuse me?” Gabriel’s fingers tightened around the spine of his book, his eyes darkening. 

Becky was, however, oblivious to Gabriel’s sudden mood change. “Yeah! All that refined sugar, and junk food, and pop. Those things are so bad for your health I don’t understand why anyone would ever want to eat that stuff.” She waved her arms around animatedly, her face pinched into a disgusted frown. “I’m almost glad it went under, we could use less of those around, if we ever want to win the war against obesity, right?”

Gabriel felt his teeth grind as his jaw tensed, his breath catching in his throat. Becky was waiting for him to answer, for him to agree with her, but all Gabriel wanted to do at that moment was to reach across and slap the self-righteous smirk off her face. One day he was going to have to create that stare activated death ray, but until then Gabriel settled for a forced smile and a curt nod of his head. 

“I better get going.” Gabriel slammed the book down on the side table and stood up, much to Becky’s surprise and confusion. 

“Um, are you not going to wait for Sam?” 

“He’s a big boy, he can handle it.” 

“Ah, well...okay. Sure…” Becky sat with her hands in her lap, her big blue eyes staring at Gabriel unblinkingly. 

Gabriel heard the water turn off as he grabbed his jacket, and the sound of Becky’s increasingly annoying voice drifted through the closing front door. “Uh, Sam, your friend just left and…”

He didn’t hear the rest of her words, didn’t really want to either as he fumed. “Yeah, friend, right.” 

If Becky kept her job as Sam’s assistant, it was going to be a long six months.

===

“Where the hell did you say you found this Becky girl again?” Gabriel said around a mouthful of food, the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up to his elbows as he held the dripping, greasy burger from heaven. 

Sam picked at his salad absentmindedly as he watched Gabriel take another bite of his food, grease dripping down his wrists. “Well, she was recommended to me by someone from the community. We met up, and she seemed nice. Very enthusiastic. A total health nut and she could cook.” 

“Yeah, and very much in love with you.” Gabriel swallowed, then shoved a couple of fries into his cavernous mouth.

“Hey, she’s just nice,” Sam said weakly, but he knew Gabriel was right. 

“Well if that’s the case, I got this new intern, can I go be nice to him?”

“...Gabe!”

“Hey, just saying, kiddo.” Gabriel winked at Sam before finishing the last of his lunch. “I’m surprised you were able to come out for lunch today, it’s good to see you.”

“Yeah, I needed a break. Badly.” Sam sighed and put down his fork, his salad barely touched.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Gabriel put down his milkshake and wiped his hands on a napkin before reaching for Sam’s large fingers. 

“I...it’s just...I’m tired, Gabe.” Sam shrugged, unsure of what to say or how to even put his feelings into words. “The videos, the recipes, the deadlines. And then there’s the photography, the ridiculous amount of food leftover, it feels like all I’ve been eating for the past three weeks are sweets and cakes and breads. I...and I can’t just up and leave, you know, this is what I worked so hard for, this is my dream, my life, but right now I just want to drop it all and sink into a hole.” Sam finished miserably, his large fingers threaded through the space between Gabriel’s, squeezing tightly. 

“Woah woah, slow down there, kiddo,” Gabriel took a deep breath and squeezed Sam’s hand with as much force as he could muster. He could see the exhaustion in Sam's eyes, feel his frustrations and exasperation practically oozing out of him, but instead of feeling unsteady Gabriel knew this was his chance to finally be the rock that Sam could lean on. “You know, when I first opened up Tricks and Treats, I wanted to close shop and run away to Malta within the first month.”

“What...Malta? Why Malta?” 

“That’s not the bloody point,” Gabriel huffed indignantly. “My point is, starting something from scratch is _hard_ and it’s going to feel like a big waste of time, and sometimes it’s okay to want to run away.” 

“How did you do it?”

“Samuel. That old goat, he came over with a basket of muffins and a pot of coffee, and he sat me down and talked me through the basics of running my own business.” Gabriel smiled reassuringly at Sam. “And Castiel, he would come by and help me with the books, and marketing, and brainstorming, and just about everything else that I needed help with.”

“Sounds like a nice guy.”

“Yeah. So, it took me almost a year to get off my feet, and another before my ledger stopped bleeding red. You already have a fan base, you already have pre-orders for the book. You’re half way there kiddo. Just gotta keep your head above the water for a bit longer.” 

“I can’t wait for this to be over and done with. Just another month, right?” Sam smiled wanly, as if his eyes were too tired to be touched by the spark of that smile. 

“Right, then you can get rid of Becky, God I swear she hates me more than she loves you.” Gabriel smirked as he reached for his half melted milkshake once more, sucking the thick chocolatey goodness through a straw. 

“Oh c’mon, she’s not that bad, and she doesn’t hate you.” Sam averted his eyes and bit his bottom lip, unable to keep the look of guilt from his face.

“Oh, yeah she does. She left a voodoo doll in the bathroom, it had golden buttons for eyes and a giant letter G sewn on the back.” Gabriel shuddered and winked at Sam, good humour hovering just outside of his cheeky smirk. 

“Okay, dude, I have to live with her for another month at least,” Sam rolled his eyes dramatically. “The last thing I need to know is that she’s into some supernatural hocus pocus stuff.” 

“Hey, just sayin’!” Gabriel gave Sam a knowing look and shrugged, before turning his attention to sucking up every last little drop from the bottom of his glass. 

Maybe it was the teasing, or maybe it was simply being out here with Gabriel instead of being in his kitchen, but Sam relaxed as he bantered with shorter man. Tension flowed from him and it was as if a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders. Why did he not drag Gabriel out for lunch earlier? 

Gabriel watched as Sam attacked his salad with a vengeance, it was like his stomach discovered that his throat wasn’t slit after all, and that food was actually, finally coming. They finished their lunch littered with small talk, and when it was finally time for Gabriel to go back to the office, he couldn’t resist the urge and leaned in for a small kiss. He knew he shouldn’t have done that in public, so close to his office, but it had been well over a week since he last saw Sam, and even then they had spent the evening at Sam’s place, under Becky’s scrutiny. 

This book deal meant a lot to Sam, therefore it meant a lot to Gabriel. In the beginning they still managed to find time for a quick date here and there, or a romp between the sheets at Gabriel’s, but as the months went by, and as the deadline drew nearer with terrifying speed, Gabriel saw his boyfriend less and less. 

He also avoided Sam’s place like the plague, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, Becky’s words had hurt him, and in turn that hurt turned into a hatred for the girl that Gabriel was both ashamed of, and yet unable to shake. Everything about her was a living, breathing reminder that there were people out there happy that he’d failed, happy that he’d lost everything. In a way she reminded him of Raphael, and his snide remarks and his cruel, mocking stare. 

Gabriel watched Sam’s large frame slide behind the wheel of his car, and waited until his tail lights had disappeared around the corner before turning on the balls of his feet to head back to the office. It was summer when Sam first got the good news, now autumn was making her grand exit, her dainty feet walking down a carpet of gold and red leaves, making room for the icy caress of the Snow Queen. He smiled at the thought, and couldn’t help but wish his day would be over so he could go home and lose himself in yet another one of Sam’s fairy tale books. 

That night, after a long bath and some leftovers for dinner, Gabriel curled up in bed with his book, his nose glued to the pages until his eyes began to droop. He inhaled deeply, picking up the musky scent of the aged pages and traces of a smell he so dearly missed. Sam isn’t the only one ready for this book to be finished, Gabriel thought to himself as his mind began to drift. 

===

After six months of living together, working together, eating together, and practically doing everything together, _except being actually together_ , Becky felt like crying. It wasn’t supposed to go this way, she was supposed to use this opportunity to win Sam over, make him fall in love with her and then they’d live happily ever after. 

She glanced at the open notebook on her bed and read the words scrawled across the page for the hundredth time. The master plan. The plan that was supposed to end with her tucked snugly in the crook of Sam’s big, strong arms. She picked up the book and flipped through the pages angrily, until she couldn’t take the sight of her own writing anymore. With a frustrated grunt she threw the book across the room, the pages bouncing off the wall to crumple on the floor. 

_It was all his fault!_ Oh Becky was very aware just why her plans of seduction did not work. It did not work because _Gabriel_ was a constant thorn in her side. Yes, he wasn’t around much, but when he was it didn’t take a genius to figure out that he was practically spraying his pheromones all over her poor, innocent Sam. 

How Sam could fall for a man was still beyond her, but she believed that with the right kind of guidance and patience, she would be the one to lead Sam down the path of redemption. It was she that would free Sam from the grasp of the devil. 

But she was running out of time, there were only a couple of recipes left, and it would take no more than a week to run through those. She needed a plan B, and she needed it fast. She took a deep breath, then cracked open her laptop and glanced around guiltily, as if someone was watching her, judging her. With a shake of her head, Becky laid her doubts to the side, making room for the courage she knew she needed to do this. She _must_ do this, for her sake, and Sam’s. 

Quickly she connected to the IRC channel her friend gave her, and tracked down the screen handle she was looking for. She left a pre-arranged message, then waited, and waited, her nerves practically frayed to ribbons, before the blinking reply came back. 

_It’s done._

Becky swallowed a squeal and scanned the rest of the message. It contained login information to Sam’s personal email, Facebook and even his Twitter account. She logged into the various accounts, making sure they were legitimate before making a wire transfer of a sizeable sum to the anonymous user. It was expensive, but it was worth it. 

Armed with her new weapons, Becky went to work.

Sure, fabricating sexually explicit emails between Sam and another woman was wrong, but if it meant driving Gabriel away, then Sam would be saved. Eventually Sam would see the light, and with Gabriel gone he’d eventually fall in love with her, Becky assured herself as her fingers flew across her laptop keyboard. 

Her hacker friend had said the emails must look legitimate, so they must be sent from Sam’s email, and replied back from a separate account. She had, over the past six months studied Sam’s writing style, and had no problems imitating him. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right?

After the emails were sent she went on Sam’s Facebook, and changed his relationship status to “it’s complicated,” before sending out a cryptic tweet. Sam was so busy these days with his video editing and book that there was no way he’d notice these little things, but Becky was sure that Gabriel would. 

Finally, satisfied with her handy work, Becky slammed her laptop shut and took some deep calming breaths. She knew she’d committed some small evils, but it was for the greater good. Yes, for the greater good and for Sam’s well being. She shut her eyes tightly and kept on repeating this in her head, like a mantra, until she finally, truly believed it herself. When she finally opened her eyes again she felt calm and collected, then she put on her best smile before leaving her room. 

“Morning Becky,” Sam said sleepily as he waited for the coffee to finish brewing. God, but he was just so adorable, rubbing sleep from his eyes while his hair stuck out in that organized dishevelled kind of way that left everything to the imagination. Becky swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to push away the sinful, carnal mental images that popped into her head. 

“Morning Sam,” she replied calmly, mentally patting herself on the back for her composure. “Say, I haven’t seen Gabriel around in a while.”

“Oh, yeah, he’s been busy.” Sam grabbed two mugs and set out the cream and honey. When the coffee maker finally coughed it’s final droplet from the filter, Sam muttered a prayer.

“Why don’t you have him over this Friday night? We’ll be done pretty much everything by then, and I uh, have a date.” 

Sam took a sip of his black coffee before pouring Becky a mug, then he added a teaspoon of cream and equal amount of honey before handing it to the short, blond girl with the angelic smile. “That...would be really awesome! I’d love to spend a night in with him. Thanks Becks, you’re the best.” 

Becky hid her smile behind her mug and simply nodded. Sam was already sending Gabriel a text, and missed the less than angelic glint in her eyes. 

===

“Shit, Becks, could you finish up here?” Sam called from the bathroom, his voice laced with panic. It was half past seven, Gabriel was supposed to come by at quarter to eight, and Sam was covered from head to toe in tapioca flour; Becky had accidentally bumped him when he was tidying up, and the tapioca just exploded. The only way to get it out of his hair was to shower. 

“Yeah, I got this, you go get cleaned up,” Becky called out from the kitchen. Was that a small hint of glee Sam heard in her voice? He shook his head and rolled his eyes at his flour covered reflection, before stripping down and jumping into the shower. 

Tapioca turned into a sticky mess when wet, and Becky was banking on that to keep Sam preoccupied as she quickly abandoned the kitchen when she heard the sound of running water. Quietly she set up Sam’s laptop on the living room table, leaving his email open on the screen, before heading back to clean up the mess in the kitchen. She heard Sam’s loud curses as he pulled the gooey lumps of tapioca from his hair, and smiled widely when the front door open; she hated that Gabriel had his own key. 

“Hey Gabe!” 

“Hi Becky.” God he hated her voice, it just grated on him in all the wrong ways. “Where’s Sam?”

“He spilled some flour on himself, he’s washing it off now,” Becky replied quickly as she picked up her purse and coat. “I’ve got a thing. Make yourself at home, go on-line or something. Sam should be done soon.”

Gabriel hated how she talked and acted as if she belonged there, as if this was _her_ space, and that Gabriel was the unwanted intrusion. Well, technically, this was her home, but- wait, was that Sam’s laptop sitting on the table, just waiting to have its secrets discovered? 

“Uh, yeah, thanks. You have fun Becky.” Gabriel put down his briefcase and jacket as Becky brushed past him to reach for the front door. He was only too happy to see her silhouette disappear when the door swung shut behind her, and practically jumped over the couch to get to the laptop.

Finally, he was going to find that stupid comment once and for all. 

If he were Sam, and he had some incriminating blackmail material, where would he save it? Gabriel thought to himself as he flipped through Sam’s document directories. He wouldn’t save it somewhere obvious, but he’d also want to make a backup copy of it just in case. Email!

Pleased with his stroke of genius, Gabriel brought up Sam’s already open email and scanned through the inbox. There were a few emails from his agent, some more emails from Jessica about their new video. He paid those no attention as he scanned down the list, looking for what, he didn’t know, but he was sure he’d recognise it when he saw it. 

So it came as a great shock when his eyes landed on a subject line of “I can’t get you out of my head.” Gabriel’s finger twitched on the mouse and swallowed. The sender’s email looked suspiciously female, and it seemed like they had a thread of ten messages going back and forth, and the date stamp was recent. He looked up from the computer in the direction of the bathroom, the water was still on, and he could still hear Sam’s low voice grumbling behind the spray of the shower. 

It was so wrong to open Sam’s emails, so so _so_ wrong, but he was so damn curious. No he shouldn’t, it would be trespassing on Sam’s personal space. Yeah but...what was this nagging feeling in the corner of his mind? Gabriel bit his cheek until he could taste blood, then with a curse he opened the email. 

What greeted his eyes made his breath hitch. After the first two extremely explicit messages (She wants to do _what_ to Sam’s penis, and he _wanted it there? really?!_ ) Gabriel knew he should have stopped reading, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the screen, and like a terrible, mangled car crashed, he gaped and stared and his fingers scrolled until he had read all ten extremely inappropriate, and extremely R-rated emails. 

He sat back, his treasure hunt completely forgotten. Gabriel was in shock, was this really Sam? Would he really do this to him? But...this was Sam’s email and his writing style, and, as wrong as it was for Gabriel to have read it, wasn’t this just a hundred times worse? Was this woman the reason why Sam’d been so “busy” the past few months? From the sound of things they’d been seeing each other for months, and had gotten quite intimate. 

The shower stopped, and shortly after out came a very wet, and very apologetic Sam as he wrapped a large towel around his hips. He looked into the living room and broke into a big toothy smile that turned his eyes into tiny little slits when he saw Gabriel’s mop of dirty blond hair behind the couch, his laptop in Gabriel’s lap.

“Hey, Angel, if you’re looking for that comment, you won’t find it...” Sam’s voice was low and rumbling as he smirked and made his way into the living room. He put in a little extra sway in his hips as he sauntered, and lowered his towel until the plush fabric sat just above the junction of his hips. He was barely decent, and he knew the effect that had on Gabriel when he was like this – wet, playful, and infuriatingly smug. 

But there was no reply, no snide remark, not even an irritated scowl because Gabriel did not even move to look at him. “Gabe?” Still no reply. Sam’s voice took on a note of worry as he frowned and covered the last bit of distance between him and the couch with long strides. The blank look on Gabriel’s face made Sam recoil, then those golden eyes came into focus and bore into Sam like daggers, the intensity of it caused Sam to take a step back. 

“What’s wrong, Gabriel?”

“What’s...wrong?” Gabriel chuckled, then laughed. The sound was maniacal and harsh; it did not melt the near metallic coolness in his eyes. 

Sam stood there, dripping, confused, when the slap cracked loud and hot against his cheek. Gabriel was on his feet, his chest heaving as hot tears spilled over to drip down his chin. They stared at each other for a long, stifling moment, before the shorter man turned and ran through the front door.


	13. Chapter 13

Gabriel ran. At some point he stopped long enough to slip on his shoes, then continued to push through the busy sidewalk, ignoring the annoyed looks as he bounced from shoulder to shoulder. He blinked through the veil of tears that threatened to spill and hung his head low as he stumbled blindly. 

He wasn’t sure what hurt more, his lungs, his legs or his heart, but he was swimming in a sea of pain and the only way he could escape was by depleting his body of oxygen, until every nerve ending became numb. Tears snaked down his flushed cheeks, he tasted the salt – bitter on his parted lips – with each breath as his lungs struggled. 

The emails flashed before his eyes to haunt him, taunt him, tease him, mock him, hitting him with a fresh wave of nausea as he turned a blind corner. He felt the cold press of metal on his forehead before his limbs wrapped around the solid no parking sign. The impact stopped Gabriel in his tracks and sent his ass to the pavement, knocking the breath out of him. 

He held up his hands, eyes staring but unseeing, looking through the gaps between his fingers until the first gut wrenching sob escaped his lips. Gabriel buried his face in his palms and tasted blood as he bit into his cheek to stop the dam that came crumbling down anyway. 

Why? Why would Sam do this to him? _How_ could Sam do this to him. _Because you’re not worthy of someone like Sam._ The thought flashed through his mind savagely, causing Gabriel to smile bitterly into his hands, his palms greasy with sweat and tears. 

He sat on the cold concrete, switching between bitter laughter and gross sobbing, drunk on heartbreak and a sadness beyond any he’d ever experienced. Every time the tears dried up, Gabriel would remember something – the touch of Sam’s fingers along his jaw, or the taste of Sam’s breath on his tongue – that would set his chest seizing and his shoulders heaving until he felt like throwing up. 

People averted their eyes as they hurried by him, pretending to not see him as they separated like water. Gabriel was invisible, small, and utterly miserable, but he couldn’t bring himself to stand up, because his legs decided that this was the perfect time to cramp up beneath him. Bloody hell, even his own damn legs were out to get him. 

Something dug into Gabriel’s sore bottom, the pressure finally uncomfortable enough for his brain to register. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a cheap keyring, attached to it were two bronze keys. The keys dangled and spun lazily, unaware and uncaring of Gabriel’s troubles as they swayed. He gazed at them, then took a deep, shuddering breath before pushing himself to his feet. 

Gabriel blinked at his surroundings until recognition set in. It was deceptively warm for a clear night in December, but Gabriel still wished he’d grabbed his coat in his blind rage. With a soft sigh that ended in a hiccup, Gabriel picked up his feet and began a slow trudge along the street, unsure and uncaring of his destination. 

Time held no meaning as he wandered along the brightly lit streets, his mind numb even as his lips turned more blue with each passing minute. The key ring dangled dangerously loose around his index finger, and after what felt like hours of mindless wandering, Gabriel stopped in front of a dark, empty store front. 

The place was between his and Sam’s apartment, the structure was a quaint brick building that was dubbed heritage by some pot-bellied politician, hoping to win favours with the locals. He stared at the door knob dubiously before slipping in the key. The lock clicked softly as he turned the knob and pushed into the dark interior.

After a whole year of crazy overtime and consuming more ramen noodles than a full time college student, Gabriel had finally saved up enough money to take out a loan for a new store. This was supposed to be his new beginning, his way of showing Sam that he was getting back on his feet. This was supposed to erase the pained look of betrayal that had twisted Sam’s features that night so many months ago, the night when he so politely told Gabriel to ‘fuck off.’ It was well deserved. 

Gabriel blinked, his pupils dilating as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. There was a single table in the large, empty room, a bottle of champagne and two flutes sat neatly next to a small blue velvet box. Gabriel picked up the box, his lips turning into a lopsided grin as he flipped the lid to reveal a glittering band of white gold. 

A single tear rolled down his cheek to glide off the cold metal, soaking into the soft velvet, turning it black. With a snap, Gabriel shut the lid and flung the box against the wall. 

===

The phone rang, and rang, and when Castiel finally cracked open an eye to squint at the clock, the damn thing vibrated so hard it nearly fell off the nightstand. He ignored the call, his eyes focused instead on the red letters of his digital clock. 

“Whoever the fuck is calling at four in the goddamn morning should be fucking shot…” Castiel grumbled under his breath and yanked the duvet over his head when his phone began buzzing once more. With a groan he grabbed the phone and plastered it against his ear, his eyes already closed as he mumbled, “Hello?” 

“Hey, Castiel?” Castiel frowned as he tried to put a name to the voice. 

“Yes? Who’s this?”

“This is Sam.” 

“Sam? What’s up?” Castiel sat up and rubbed sleep from his eyes, a sinking feeling in his stomach. How often does one get a call from his brother’s boyfriend at four in the morning with good news?

“Um, is Gabe with you?” 

“...No,” Castiel replied cautiously, sleep replaced by a sliver of fear. “I assume he’s not with you either.”

“No, we...I…” A muffled sigh drifted through the receiver before Sam continued. “I don’t really know what happened, but he ran out of here in a hurry and I haven’t been able to get a hold of him.” 

“What happened?” Castiel stumbled out of bed, his outstretched hand already searching the floor for some pants.

“I don’t even know. He was here when I got out of the shower, but looked like someone had donkey kicked him in the stomach, then he just stormed out of here.” Sam sounded panicked and lost and a million other things that screamed worry for Gabriel. Castiel almost wanted to reach through the phone to give the poor kid a pat on the head, sometimes his big brother can be such a handful. 

“Hey, relax,” Castiel soothed into the phone as he pulled on a pair of faded jeans and an old t-shirt. 

“I can’t-I just-I don’t know what’s wrong. I don’t know if it was something I did, or didn’t do, or what. But I can’t get through his cell, and I tried his place, no one was home, and I just don’t know where else he’d be if he’s not with you an-”

“Whoa, slow down, Sam,” Castiel cut in quickly before Sam choked on his own run on sentence. “I...might know where he is. Did he...did you guys have a chance to talk at all tonight?”

“...No…” Sam didn’t feel like the few words they’d exchanged counted as a talk.

“Oh boy,” Castiel sighed loudly into the phone. “I’ll go look for him, you sit tight?”

“Can I...come?” 

Castiel chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully as he pulled on his trench coat. He knew Gabriel was going to break the good news to Sam tonight, but something must have happened that made Gabriel change his mind. He considered telling Sam to wait, but the silence that drifted from the other end of the phone was suffocating, and the poor kid must have been up all night, worried sick. 

“Alright, text me your address and I’ll come pick you up.” 

“Okay.” Sam all but deflated as a sigh of relief sounded from the other end, followed closely by, “Thank you, Castiel.” 

“Don’t mention it.” Castiel hung up before Sam could say anything else. 

===

“You know, I’m glad your brother’s fine and all, but really? Hypothermia? Why the hell was a grown ass man sleeping in an unheated, empty store with no winter jacket on?” Dean scrubbed a hand down his face before turning to face the seated man with the uncanny blue eyes. The stare he got in return was both un-amused and so very electrifyingly _blue_.

“Well maybe if _your_ brother didn’t do something that caused him to storm off, albeit a tad over dramatic on Gabe’s part, maybe none of us would be spending Saturday morning in the goddamn emergency room.” Castiel tried to hide the annoyance in his voice, so he studied the splash of freckles across Sam’s brother’s nose. “And...Dean was it? Why are you even here?”

“When Sammy couldn’t find Gabriel he called me, freaking out,” Dean sighed and fell into the plastic chair next to Castiel with a groan. “Poor kid was beside himself. I suggested he tried calling someone close to Gabriel, so he called you.” 

“So you’re the guy I have to thank for a 4am wake up call?” Was there just the smallest hint of a twinkle in those blue eyes?

“Hey, he woke me up first,” Dean countered indignantly. “When he called to let me know you guys were headed for the hospital, I figured I'd come and give him moral support, or something.” Dean’s face split into a wide grin, green eyes locked on blues. “That’s what brothers do right?”

Suddenly the waiting room felt stuffy, or maybe Castiel finally noticed, for the first time that night, that Dean Winchester had a killer smile. He broke eye contact first, his tongue flicking serpent-like to wet his chapped lips, and replied lamely, “Right.” 

They let the silence stretch on, their shoulders barely touching as they sat. What had started off as an awkward encounter turned into something comfortable, and neither men wanted to ruin the moment with words. That was until Dean’s stomach had the good grace to growl, the rumble was not unlike thunder. 

“Hungry?” Castiel swallowed a smile. 

“Maybe just a little,” Dean agreed begrudgingly, one hand unconsciously rubbing his stomach. Castiel itched to run his fingers across the smooth fabric of Dean’s t-shirt, wanting to find out for himself if that stomach felt as solid as it looked. “I’m sure the lovebirds can survive without their brothers hovering around for an hour or so, want to go grab something to eat? I know this place that has amazing pie.”

“Pie for breakfast?” Castiel’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline as he stared at Dean. 

“Pie is good for any time of the day,” Dean beamed, the smile lit up his eyes like tiny green lanterns. Castiel swallowed. 

Shit.

“S-Sure, I can drive.” Castiel jumped out of his chair, anxious to hide the blush crawling up his cheeks. 

“Oh, there’s no way I’m passing up a chance to show off Baby.” Dean unfurled from the chair, his arms reaching overhead as he stretched out the little kinks in his shoulders and neck. “I’m driving.”

Castiel could only nod as he tried not to stare at the strip of skin as Dean’s t-shirt rose higher as his stretch deepened. He knew he was blushing, and looked up to catch the knowing, devilish glint in Dean’s eyes as the man turned to walk away. 

That bastard. 

===

Tingling rose from his fingertips up his arms, and there was a cool heat boiling just beneath his skin; It was uncomfortable to say the least. Gabriel felt himself stirring and clutched desperately to the receding darkness as awareness came into focus. There was a groan, was that him? And a warm pressure wrapped around his hand and held him tightly, like a soft glove. 

Gabriel peeled his lids open and looked into a pair of smoky eyes teamed with worry, for a moment his heart soared as Sam broke into a soft smile. Those damn dimples would always be his undoing. A thought wormed its way into Gabriel’s head, and the warmth spreading from his hand turned icy as he his brain finally caught up to him. Gabriel yanked his hand from Sam's grasp, the sudden lack of heat sent pins and needles up his arm. 

"W-where am I? Why are you here?" Gabriel tried to get up, the heat that was so comfortable moments ago now felt suffocating. 

"Hey, relax. We're at the hospital," Sam replied nonchalantly, but he couldn't hide the hurt from his voice. Why was Gabriel so mad at him? "We found you out cold on the floor of this empty store, you were cold as ice so we called an ambulance. Hypothermia, the doctor said you were lucky, any longer and there might have been some permanent damage..." Sam trailed off and stared at his hands, his large fingers laced together in his lap. 

Gabriel laid back down and turned to face the window, then his monitor, then the ceiling. He didn't want to look at Sam and see the confusion and pain in those soft eyes. Why was he the one made to feel like a total asshole when Sam was the one cheating on him in the first place? The silence grew, but Gabriel would rather bask in the utter awkwardness of it than initiate a conversation, after all for once, he didn't do anything wrong. 

"...Gabe..." Sam started, then swallowed and wetted his lips before continuing. "What happened? Why did you...Why are you so mad? Is it because if been neglecting you?" When Gabriel remained silent, Sam pushed on. 

"The book, you know how important it is to me, you know how close I am. I'm really sorry if you feel like I've been ignoring yo-"

"Sure, the book, is that what you're calling it." He didn't mean to sound so nasty, but a small part of Gabriel felt triumphant as he watched Sam recoil. 

"Is that what I'm calling...it? What's this _it_? What are you on about?" Sam shouted in frustration, the concern on his face replaced by frustration. 

"Don't play dumb, you know what I mean."

"No I don't, and I can't read your frickin' mind, so why don't you stop playing games and _just be fucking honest with me!_

"Don't fucking yell at me, you're the cheating bastard that broke my heart! You don't get to talk to me like that!"

Sam was shell shocked as he stared at Gabriel, his face stoney, his eyes so narrow Gabriel could just make out the barely contained rage and disbelief swimming across those gray irises.. 

"I'm a what?" Sam's voice was dangerously soft, his eyes narrowing further until they were tiny slits. 

Gabriel swallowed under Sam's gaze, suddenly a small worm of doubt burrowed into his head. Was he mistaken? Did he make a big deal out of nothing? But those emails...they couldn't have been fake...could they? But Gabriel couldn't back down now, he knew what he saw. "That's right, cheating bastard. Don't play dumb, I saw the emails." 

"First of all you went through my email?!" Sam was livid as he exploded out of his chair, the flimsy piece of furniture sailed across the room to land crumpled by the far wall. "Also, what emails? The people that send me emails are Jess, the publishing agent and Becky! You can't possibly think Becky and I have a thing?!" 

"Well...I don't know who she is, but the shit you guys said was pretty explicit," Gabriel huffed indignantly, his arms crossing over his chest. "Go look yourself, it's only a few days old." 

He went back to staring at the ceiling. On the surface Gabriel was serene, his expression impassive as he glided on the lake of emotions, but underneath the smooth waters his feet were kicking furiously. Sam glared at him as he dug out his phone, his fingers swiping and tapping angrily until he pulled up his email. Gabriel stole glanced as Sam scrolled through his inbox, watching the play of emotions as Sam found the same incriminating emails that Gabriel did. Instead of shame, all Gabriel saw was a surge of surprise, then disgust, then utter amazement, confusion and anger as Sam's eyes shifted from line to line, email to email. 

"What...in the name of Satan is this?!" He was muttering to himself, but Gabriel couldn't resist chiming in, "You tell me." 

"No seriously, I didn't write these! I don't even know who this is!" Sam was beside himself as he paced the length of room. "If this is some sort of joke..." He glared at Gabriel.

"Wait you think I did this?! Why would I? And seriously, I love you and I'll do a lot for you but giving myself hypothermia just to prank you is not exactly on my bucket list." 

"But if you didn't...and this is obviously not me..." Sam dragged long fingers through his hair and sank down next to Gabriel on the bed. 

"So...you actually...this really wasn't you?" Gabriel studied Sam closely, eyes narrowing. 

"I swear Gabe, I didn't do this! Hell I don't even like women, never have!" Sam exclaimed. "Ask Jess!" 

Gabriel rose slowly until his nose was pressed against Sam's, his golden eyes staring straight into Sam with feline suspicion. What met him was open honesty and a healthy dose of _what the actual fuck_ in Sam's silver stare. Tension rolled off his shoulders like water as Gabriel sagged against Sam, his forehead resting against the taller man. 

"I...I believe you," Gabriel whispered, his words were as much for Sam as they were for himself. "This...this is so fucked up, who would do this to us?" 

"I don't know," Sam's eyes hardened. "But I know someone that can help." 

Dry, warm palms cupped Gabriel's cheeks, his eyes fluttered close as he leaned into the touch. It was a feeling of familiarity and comfort that Gabriel desperately missed and thought he'd lost forever. 

They sat quietly, enjoying each other's proximity and warmth and just the knowledge that things were okay. No better than okay. Sam shifted until he was snuggled up against Gabriel, their bodies pressed flush from head to toe on the single hospital bed. 

Gabriel reached up and ran his fingers through Sam's hair, all the while thinking just how much he'd taken even this little act for granted. He loved the silky smoothness filling the gap between his fingers and made a mental note to never let Sam cut his hair. 

"What are you thinking?" Sam murmured, his chin resting on top of Gabriel's head. 

“How much I love--” He leaned up and planted a kiss on Sam’s neck “--your hair.”

"Cheeky bastard," Sam laughed and shifted his hips to reach into his back pocket. He pulled out a pair of keys and a little blue velvet box. "This was next to you when we found you passed out in the store."

"I had planned last night to go so very differently..." Gabriel stared at the box and keys but made no move to reclaim them from Sam. 

"How did you plan last night to go?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise." Gabriel studied his fingers intently. "I took out a loan, found the store. I'm going to reopen Tricks and Treats, and I wanted you to be the first to set foot in the place." He trailed off and cleared his throat. 

An awkward silence settled around them, and when Gabriel offered no more explanations Sam pressed gently, "And?" He extended his arm, the velvet box small inside his large palm. 

"...And...I..." Gabriel stammered nervously. "I...oh just open it." 

Sam hesitated, the tiny box felt leaden. With trembling fingers he pried open the lid and held his breath, as if this was Pandora's box he'd just cracked. A simple square band of glittering white gold sat nestled between the velvet crease. Sam looked from it to Gabriel, his expression unreadable. 

"I know we've only been together for a year." Gabriel twisted the cotton sheets between his fingers. "But I don't want to live the rest of my life without you in it." 

"Gabe-" Gabriel brushed a finger against Sam's lips, hushing him. 

"No, not now." He shook his head. "I wanted it to be perfect..."

Sam gripped Gabriel's fingers in his, bringing the digits to his lips. "There's no better time Gabe, I love you." His lips ghosted over Gabriel's fingers, travelling past his knuckles to plant firmly against the back of Gabriel's hand. He grinned against the warm skin, then got down on one knee and pulled the ring from the velvet box. 

"Gabriel Novak, will you marry me?" He held out the ring. 

"Are you for real proposing to me with my own ring?" Gabriel sat rooted in his bed, one foot dangling just off the edge. 

"Is that a yes?" Sam smiled cheekily, but Gabriel did not miss the hint of nervousness hovering just around the corners of his eyes. He snatched the ring from Sam's fingers, and slid the hoop down his ring finger. It was way too big. 

"Answer enough for you?" He shook his hand in Sam's face, the ring bouncing on his finger. 

"We'll have to get you a new ring," Sam smirked before leaning in, claiming Gabriel's lips in one ferocious kiss. 

===

It didn't work, how did it not work? Becky paced her room like a caged animal. How did she know it did not work? Because it was Friday night, and Gabriel was over again. Ever since he got discharged from the hospital Gabriel had been hovering almost everyday. He got the time off from work, and Sam insisted on him being here. 

Becky flopped down on her bed and punched the pillow in frustration. Her sabotage had backfired, Sam had gone to a hacker friend of his own, and before long they'd know Sam's accounts were tampered with. She didn't know enough about computers to understand how it all worked, but Becky was sure they'd find out it was her one way or another. 

Something crashed in the kitchen, followed by Sam's throaty laughter and Gabriel squealing something unintelligible. Becky's teeth ground loudly, the sound echoing in her head, but it wasn't loud enough to block out the sound of Gabriel's squeals turning into barely contained moans. Ugh, this was just too damn much. 

"Oh my God...Sam _stop it!_ " Gabriel gasped as he tried to escape Sam's octopus arms, his own hands wedged against Sam’s chest. He could feel custard dripping down his chin and neck, thick, sticky, and incredibly cold. Sam flicked Gabriel’s hands out of the way and yanked him back into his arms, his firm chest smearing the cold custard across his chest. "I'm sticky and cold and _would you please for the love of God stop-_ " Sam's tongue latched onto hollow at the base of his neck, following the trail of custard. 

A soft cough interrupted Sam's merciless assault, Gabriel was almost happy for the intrusion, even if it was Becky. 

"I...um, I'm going out. Probably going to stay with a friend. You two have fun." 

"Alright Becks, you have a good night!" Sam replied without taking his hands off Gabriel. If anything he latched on tighter, so tight that Gabriel could feel the custard soaking through his shirt. 

They waited until the front door clicked shut, Gabriel tried once more to wiggle free but Sam was having none of it. "And where do you think you're going?" He breathed into Gabriel's ear, his teeth nipping soft skin with each word. 

"To the bathroom, so I can wash this off..." Gabriel groaned as he shuffled backwards, his hip bumping into the edge of the island. Sam loomed over him to lap at his jaw, licking up the custard with a swirl of the tongue. His fingers dug into Gabriel's hips and spun the smaller man around to pin him against the counter. Gabriel whined, his hands flying out to brace himself against the edge even as his fingers slipped on powdered sugar and flour and God knows what else. 

He wanted to protest, to break free, but Sam's tongue lapped away at his resolve until all that was left was this raw need bubbling from deep within. He pushed against the counter, his ass jutting just right to rub against the growing bulge between Sam's legs. 

"Just let me go wash up, and I'll let you do whatever you want..." 

"Or, I keep you pinned right here and do what I want to you anyway." Sam thrust firmly against Gabriel, reinforcing the dominance the younger man had over him. One hand delved beneath Gabriel’s shirt, the fabric pulled taut as it traveled upwards along with nimble fingers that left a trail of blazing skin. Sam dragged his fingers across the thin layer of custard across Gabriel’s chest, and pushed his hand through the collar of Gabriel’s shirt to suck at the digits. “Hnnng delicious.” 

"You're not seriously going to fuck me right here, on a bed of powdered sugar, covered in custard?" Gabriel reasoned, or tried to with what few functioning brain cells he had left. 

"Well, I do have a sweet tooth, and you do taste mighty delicious covered in custard." 

Gabriel snorted and made to push away from the island. Large hands planted against the counter on either side of Gabriel's, long arms boxing him in even as Sam's chest flattened against Gabriel's back. Sam’s hips rocked forward in repeated, persistent thrusts, sawing his erection against the crack of Gabriel's jean-clad ass. The heat was incredible, and suddenly all Gabriel wanted was to feel that heat fill the void within him. 

"S-Sam...need you..." Gabriel wiggled his ass, breaking the lazy rhythm. He felt Sam pull back, felt warm fingers curl around the edge of his shirt, and suddenly he was half naked and trembling from cold and need. 

“Shhh,” Sam cooed as he dropped the shirt, his hands already roaming across the expanse of Gabriel’s naked flesh. A warm, wet tongue joined the assault as Sam spun Gabriel around once more, his body nearly bent over as he cleaned Gabriel’s chest of all traces of custard. Gabriel could only lean back, his hands gripping the edge of the island like a lifeline as his back arched painfully, his chest heaving with the effort to catch his breath. 

Even when all that remained of the custard was the faint scent of vanilla and rich cream, Sam continued to lap and lick and nip and nibble, until Gabriel could not believe the noises echoing around the kitchen were his own. Sam travelled lower still, sinking to his knees slowly as his lips followed the faint trail of fuzz down Gabriel’s navel. He was only too aware of the pop of his button and the vibrations of Sam’s teeth pulling his zipper inch by agonizing inch. 

“Really Gabe, no underwear?” Sam cocked an arrogant brow up at Gabriel. “Were you expecting something to happen tonight?” 

Gabriel blushed deeper and slipped sugar covered fingers around a fistful of Sam’s hair. “Shut up and suck me.” 

“Only if you say please,” Sam countered without missing a beat, his hands already working those skin tight jeans down Gabriel’s hips. 

Soft lips latched onto sensitive skin as Sam kissed along Gabriel’s left hip, following the natural line that lead his lips to the junction of Gabriel’s thighs. He ignored the jutting arousal there, instead moved his lips over to the right thigh, ghosting soft feathery kisses up along the line to end on Gabriel’s right hip. His hands gripped the smaller man firmly, holding him prisoner to his deadly assault. 

Gabriel thought he’d hold out longer, but the soft whimpers of “please, please please please” that escaped his lips were beyond his control. When Sam’s lips finally wrapped around the head of his arousal, the heat alone made his knees weak. God, he was so hard, so needy, so ready to burst. The shaft grew slick with pre-cum and saliva, and the occasional flash of silver as Sam glanced up at him was the final push that tipped Gabriel down the rabbit hole. His orgasm caught them both by surprise, but Sam recovered quickly and swallowed greedily as Gabriel’s release dripped down his throat, his tongue flicking while applying gentle suction, until every last drop was coaxed from Gabriel’s softening cock. 

Gabriel felt himself crumple as his legs gave out from under him, but before he went down strong arms held him close to a solid chest as large hands rubbed his back and shoulders. Sam was kissing him, his tongue tasted of custard and musk and something distinctively Sam, it was that flavour that Gabriel focused on until he found his legs again. 

“Jesus Moose…”

“You are delicious, inside and out,” Sam murmured against Gabriel’s lips, his breathing slightly laboured as he tried to douse his own arousal. 

“Still need to feel you…” Gabriel pulled back and looked up into big, glittering eyes. Sam’s pupils were so dilated he could barely see the silver grey of his iris. 

Sam growled low as he pushed away from Gabriel. With their eyes locked, Sam all but ripped the shirt off his back, and tripped over the forgotten metal mixing bowl in his haste to kick off his jeans. Gabriel laughed, a quick burst of sound, but it died on his lips when Sam fixed him with a hungry stare. He looked downright predatory as he stalked back to Gabriel, his cock so hard it slapped against his stomach with each step. He flipped Gabriel to face the island once more, the shorter man’s pelvis digging into the edge even as Sam’s hips pressed flush against the small of Gabriel’s back. 

The faint scent of coconut permeated the air, Gabriel turned in time to see Sam dip two large fingers into a small jar of coconut oil, the next thing he knew those same fingers were reaching between his cheeks and a familiar pressure was being applied to his entrance. The coconut oil was cool, but the slickness was welcome as Sam’s fingers sank deep inside him. Gabriel tried to relax, but it was near impossible when those long fingers were tickling his belly button from the inside. The stretching stung, but it was a dull ache that promised so much more, and Gabriel definitely needed much, much more. 

It was as if Sam read his mind, or maybe he was just as impatient to sink into Gabriel as the latter was to be filled. The penetration was rough, ripping a surprised, throaty scream from the smaller man. They stood still, Sam’s fingers digging into Gabriel’s hips, while Gabriel gripped the edge of the counter with white knuckles. The pain was intense, but fleeting as his body adjusted to the girth. He never seemed to get used to it. He took a few deep breaths, steady gulps of air, and willed himself to relax. 

It was Gabriel that shifted first, his hips rose to take Sam deeper, angling himself so that each thrust would see the fat head of Sam’s cock brush against the cluster inside him. It was a rare night when they got the whole place to themselves, and Sam was intent on taking advantage of the empty apartment. He pushed the boundaries of the sound proofing in the walls as he pounded into Gabriel ruthlessly, causing the smaller man to scream with each earth shattering thrust. 

They were still engrossed in the throes of passion when the front door clicked shut once more.


	14. Chapter 14

Sam woke to his phone screaming up a storm. It wasn’t unusual to receive a wave of comments after a new video was posted, but it never flowed in this furiously. He dragged himself out of bed and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders as he padded barefoot into the living room. Dropping onto the couch in front of the coffee table, he opened his laptop and rubbed sleep from his eyes as he waited for it to start up. He pushed the lid open and rubbed sleep from his eyes, waiting for his computer to come to life. 

Jessica had finished editing the video earlier that morning, and she brought it over so they could watch it together before getting lunch. Ever since his best friend had moved out, Sam had looked forward to their weekly lunches more than he cared to admit; he missed her like the sister he never had. 

When he’d gotten back from lunch, Becky had already set up to do the final run through of their last recipe. Sam then uploaded the video and posted it hastily, not having wanting to keep Becky waiting. The run through took longer than expected, and by the time they were done the kitchen looked like the aftermath of a tornado. Sam and Becky hadn’t fared much better. After a quick shower, a few naughty text messages exchanged with Gabriel, Sam had crawled into bed exhausted. 

The first comment made Sam’s eyes pop, he blinked unbelievingly at the hostility, negativity and downright homophobic language that filled the screen. Why was he getting such homophobic hate? A quick scroll down the page revealed more comments in varying degrees of intensity; some bashed homosexuality in general, some were directed at him personally, whilst others seemed desperate to try and defend the life choices that he was making.

“What the heck is going on…?” Sam muttered to himself. Cold dread quickly replaced any lingering sleepiness dripping down his spine like ice. He kept on reading, his eyes shifting from one line to the next. He desperately wanted to look away, but the whole thing was like a bad car wreck, something out of a nightmare, and all Sam could do was keep staring at the screen. 

There were dozens of messages. Pages upon pages. Sam furrowed his eyebrows, still halfway in denial that this was actually happening. It was ridiculous! Since he’d started, there had never been any indication in any capacity that he was gay. Not that it was anyone’s business anyways. The site was about cooking, not his personal life, and people had only ever responded favourably. There had to be a reason this mess was happening now, and Sam needed to figure out the source. It was about half way down when a user mentioned something funky with the video upload. Sam scrolled up quickly and clicked play with shaky fingers. 

The video started as expected, with Sam introducing the recipe and listing the ingredients. He sat through the opening, but couldn’t help but fast forward the video until what he saw made his blood run cold. 

The near professional edit cut off abruptly, replaced by a shaky video taken with a cellphone or a handheld recorder. The picture wasn’t high definition, but one didn’t need 1080p to see clearly which of the two faces – both flushed and pinched in orgasmic concentration – belonged to Sam. 

Time stopped. Literally ceased to move, and Sam couldn’t breathe. At least, it felt like time stopped. As if the initial collision hadn’t been bad enough, the second one rolled on through with all the force of a freight train and Sam was powerless as he stared, wide eyed and horrified at the two figures bent over the kitchen island. It was his _kitchen_. In _his_ house. _On the Friday night that was nobody else was supposed to have been home._

Unless– 

“Morning, Sam.” 

Sam jumped at the soft, feminine voice, his brain still playing catch up as he tried to make sense of everything that’s happened. His eyes followed the small form wrapped in a large robe as Becky walked into the living room, planting herself in the love seat. 

“Becky?” 

“Do you like it?” 

Sam couldn’t help the suspicious edge that crept into his voice. “Like what?”

“My gift to you.” She pointed at the laptop. The video was still playing. Sam quite suddenly noticed the fact the volume was turned up and it was an effort to keep a straight face when a particularly filthy sounding moan echoed. _Fuck_.

When if fully registered what exactly Becky had said, Sam cringed as if slapped and slammed the laptop shut, his entire body shaking as all the pieces fell in place. “ _It was you?!_ ”

“Yeah.” The comment was uttered so casually that she may as well have been talking about the weather. “You’re welcome, by the way” 

“ _You’re welcome?!_ ” Sam shouted as he jumped out of his seat, the blanket falling from his shoulders. His fists clenched tightly by his side, his arms shaking with the effort to keep himself from punching the smug look off Becky’s face. He made to speak, but the words stumbled over each other until all Sam could manage were unintelligible noises. 

“You must see that what you’re doing is wrong?” Becky tilted her head up to stare at Sam, a look of genuine surprise on her face. “I tried to steer you on the right path, Sam. I really did!” 

“What…” Ah. The lightbulb didn’t so much turn on as explode in a shower of glass. “The emails, my Facebook account, that was _you?!_ ” Becky only nodded, her fingers twisting in her lap. 

“What the fuck is _wrong_ with you?!” 

“I just wanted you to see the light! That what you’re doing is dirty, it’s wrong, it’s _sinful_....!” Becky was on her feet now, her tiny fists also clenched as she held them in front of her, as if they were enough to stop the over two hundred pound of man that she’d managed to royally piss off. “But you wouldn’t listen, you refused to see, and then you brought him back with you. Engaged! I had to do something, I had to make you open your eyes to the truth, and now you know how the whole world feels, and you know that they agree with me.”

Sam was livid. They stood in the small living room, glaring at each other with neither of them willing to back down. Sam screwed his eyes shut and focused on his breathing, trying to chase away the tinge of red hovering on the edge of his vision; the internet was already calling him a “faggot,” the last thing he needed was the adjective “murdering” to complete the title. 

“Get out,” Sam spat through gritted teeth. 

“I’m sorry?” 

“Did I stutter? I said _GET. OUT!_ ” Becky recoiled at the intensity of Sam’s words, her fists coming to rest on her bosom as she took a staggering step back.

“Right now? And where am I supposed to go?” 

“I don’t give a rats ass where you go,” Sam’s voice was low with simmering rage. “But unless you want to go into a body bag, I suggest you get the fuck out now.

Becky opened her mouth, but one glare from Sam shut her up. He watched her run into her room, watched as she reemerged wrapped in a warm jacket, his glare following her slight figure to the front door. Becky turned the knob and pulled open the door, and turned to look at Sam, her eyes brimming with tears. “I love you Sam, I did it for you.” 

Sam said nothing and waited for the front door to shut before collapsing into the couch, his body completely deflated, only to be filled once again with gut wrenching terror. The first thing he did was to take the video down, but the comments had migrated from his YouTube channel to his blog, and the attacks were merciless. 

His phone chimed and bounced on the coffee table, Sam glanced at the screen and groaned, it was the agent. A small part of him didn’t want to pick up the phone, another part of him was wondering why his publisher was up at such an ungodly hour to begin with? 

The angel on his shoulder won out, and Sam sighed as he picked up the phone with one hand, his other pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“Sam? What is going on? Are you seeing this? Pre-orders are being dropped like flies in a cloud of insecticide. Tell me you know what’s going on?” The heavily British accented voice was gentle, almost bored, but Sam wasn’t fooled by Crowley’s pretend nonchalance. Oh yeah, also, hello to you too, asshole. 

“Yeah...yeah I know.” Sam exhaled slowly.

An awkward silence stretched through the phone, Sam could almost _see_ his agent tapping a thigh impatiently. This suspicion was confirmed when an extremely annoyed and agitated voice drifted through, “And? Well?”

“Someone-” Sam cleared his throat, “Someone uploaded a sex tape of me with my fiance.”

The silence was deafening. Thunderous, to be perfectly honest. Sam pinched the bridge of his nose again, hoping to hold back the pounding headache that threatened to burst to the surface. 

“You have a fiance? Wait–you’re gay?” Came the incredulous reply over the phone. Sam’s hackles rose, ready to verbally annihilate the man if he deemed his next words derogatory in any way. However the only thing that came through after another long pause was, “You took it down I hope?”

“Of course I did.” An edge of annoyance crawled into Sam’s voice as he let out a long sigh. The headache was getting worse. He pinched harder. 

“...Alright Sasquatch, I’ll come by first thing in the morning, and with some luck we can ride this out.” He didn’t sound hopeful. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll see you in the morning.” Sam hung up, uncaring of what the surly Brit had to say. He glanced at the clock and debated if two in the morning was too late or too early to call Gabriel. He only hesitated briefly before his finger moved on autopilot, dialing Gabriel’s speed dial before his brain could catch up and stop him. The phone rang four times before a groggy, sleepy voice drifted through.

“...Hello?” 

“Gabe…” 

“Sam?” Gabriel’s voice went from sleepy to alert in the blink of an eye. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m ruined. It’s all ruined. I’m done, just so done.” 

“Sam...shit, are you home?”

“...Yeah.”

“Good, I’ll be there in 15, don’t you dare move.” 

The phone went dead. Sam brought the little black box that was his connection to the world from his ear to rest in his lap, forgotten. Gabriel was coming over, Gabriel was going to get here and make it all better. Gabriel’s face was plastered all over the internet. Gabriel’s orgasmic visage was broadcasted to the whole world. Gabriel’s reputation, his privacy, ruined and violated.

And it was all Sam’s fault. 

Suddenly he didn’t want to see Gabriel, couldn’t face him if he wanted to. What would he say? How would he break it to the man of his dreams that a video of him getting sodomized was being passed around the internet, immortalized for eternity? 

Sam sat in the couch as if in a trance when the front door burst open, and in exploded a wild-eyed madman with crazy bed hair. Gabriel rushed into the living room, his shoes bouncing off the wall somewhere along the way, and dropped to his knees before Sam’s near comatose figure. 

“Baby, what’s wrong?” He reached for Sam’s hands, wrapping his smaller fingers around Sam’s larger ones. When he got no response, Gabriel gripped tighter and shook Sam’s arms until dull, grey eyes came into focus. 

Tears welled up in those eyes, giving the grey a soft metallic sheen. “Oh Gabe…” 

Gabriel felt his heart seize as his rock crumbled before him. He crawled up onto the couch and snuggled his body flush against Sam’s, his arms encircling the large man, pulling Sam into him as much as possible. They sat there, with Gabriel rocking them back and forth, letting Sam tell the story at his own pace. When he finished Gabriel just hugged the man tighter and stroked his long silky hair, until Sam’s eyes grew heavy and his breathing evened out in exhausted slumber.

===

Gabriel sat in the kitchen, sipping on a hot steaming mug of coffee as he tried his hardest to not eavesdrop on the conversation happening in the living room. The man named Crowley, Sam’s agent, showed up early in the morning, catching them both still asleep on the couch. Gabriel took an instant dislike to the man as soon as he stepped into the homely apartment, his nose turned up, his voice detached and all hoity-toity. 

The low voices drifting from the living room sounded intense, and more than once Gabriel could hear Sam’s voice increase in decibel, only to be brought back down by quiet words uttered in the most infuriating British accent Gabriel had ever heard. 

It was four cups of coffee and two breakfasts of instant oatmeal and a bowl of dry cereal later when Gabriel heard Sam shut the front door. He came out of the kitchen with a second steaming cup in hand. The look on Sam’s face made Gabriel stop in his tracks. Shit.

Sam sank back into the couch, he smiled and accepted the hot mug from Gabriel. The smile did not reach his eyes. When Sam just stared quietly into the black liquid, Gabriel pushed gently, “So?” 

“So…” Sam swallowed. “Bad rep, drastic drop in pre-orders, and since mass printing hasn’t started, they’ve decided to drop the book.” 

The mug froze on its way to Gabriel’s lips, “I’m sorry, what about the contract?”

“It’s written pretty clearly, in the small print, that if something scandalous happened they hold the right to ‘terminate if necessary.’ This was pretty scandalous.” Sam took a long sip of his coffee, hiding his face behind the mug. 

Gabriel closed his eyes and felt the waves of sadness and defeat emanating from Sam’s hunched over shoulders, fanning his own rage, “I am so going to kill her.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I totally wrote this between the hours of midnight and 3:30am, so needless to say it was more atrociously written than what a drunken 3-year-old could do. My wonderful beta decided to take my words and rearrange them to make more sense, and then she went ahead and made it all absolutely amazing for me, so this chapter is really a love child of both our efforts combined!

It wasn’t easy.

Never in his life had Sam lacked a direction to move in, been so utterly and completely lost that he couldn’t come up with a Plan B, or even C, to get himself out of a rough patch. Then again, his cooking had been everything to him, his life’s work. It was supposed to be his Magnum Opus for Christ’s sake.

And what happened now? The entire thing had come crashing down around him with a few choice emails and he had no idea how to move forward. Gabriel tried really hard to keep some semblance of normality, he really did. He brought Sam breakfast in bed in the mornings, kept the fridge packed with fresh produce and ingredients, all bought from Sam’s favourite farmer’s market. He made tea and coffee, tried to cook, and sat cuddled up against Sam in the evenings while they watched television or read books or mucked about on the laptop.

Everything he did practically radiated care and attention, and it was all really sweet, really considerate, and it was annoying the living daylights out of Sam. It was almost like Gabriel was afraid he would break if the wrong thing was said, or Gabriel looked at him the wrong way. The signs were subtle, but the tone of voice, careful pauses before speaking as if Gabriel were weighing his words, didn’t go unnoticed.

With his head halfway inside the fridge putting away organic, heirloom carrots and some sweet potatoes, Gabriel chattered away. “I practically had to fight an old lady to get this carrot bundle, it was the best of the lot. How was your day, Moose? Anything interesting happen? Tell me about it!”

“Nothing happened, I did some housekeeping. The bathroom is clean,” Sam muttered, his large hands wrapped around a cup of lukewarm coffee as he leaned against the island counter.

“That’s it? You know I would have helped you clean.” Gabriel straightened up and turned to look at Sam, a box of fresh baby spinach in his hand.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like I’ve got anything else to do.” His voice was flat, and Sam knew that he was being standoffish on purpose. He was straight up sulking, like a child, but didn’t give a damn.

“Sammy—”

“Don’t fucking call me that! Only Dean gets to call me that!” Sam snapped, louder than intended, and he immediately wished he could take it back. He shrank under the weight of Gabriel’s wide-eyed stare.

“I—sorry, Sam. I didn’t mean—”

Putting the mug down on the counter and running a hand through his hair, Sam sighed. “No, Gabe, I should be apologizing to you. That was a crappy thing to say, and I didn’t mean it. It’s not your fault that I’m strung out.” He moved around the counter and wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s slight shoulders. Guilt punched him straight in the gut when Gabriel tensed before relaxing into the embrace.

“It’s okay, babe,” Gabriel murmured and shut his eyes, leaning his head back to rest against Sam’s chest. “I know this isn’t easy, trust me, I know.”

“Still isn’t an excuse for me to be a total asshole, you’re just trying to help,” Sam countered, dipping his head to bury his nose in the soft mop of the smaller man’s hair. He breathed deeply, his eyes closing as the scent of Gabriel’s shampoo filled his nostrils. It smelled like home.

“Yeah, well, you’re my asshole,” Gabriel craned his neck and looked up at Sam, smirking. “Not to mention, we both know that I’m full of enough shit that it has the potential to burst out at any moment without warning.”

Sam loosened his embrace and pulled back, staring down at Gabriel with open disgust. “Dude, that’s disgusting!” His expression turned somewhat sly. “You should really see someone about that, could be hazardous. I’d hate to have to get you admitted to hospital.”

With a snort, Gabriel’s smirk pulled into a full-fledged grin. “Ahh, but there he is. The Sam I know and love.” He had to stand on tip-toes and crank his neck at a near impossible angle to press his lips against Sam’s jaw, but he did it. The balance act was worth the sigh the taller man let out, tension literally draining out of his body. Gabriel put the box of spinach on the counter and turned fully around in the embrace, sliding his own arms around Sam’s waist to cross at his low back. “You’ll get through this. We will get through this.”

“It’s been three months, Gabe. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” Sam’s voice rumbled against Gabriel’s scalp. He sounded utterly despondent.

“You’ll find something.”

“Like what? Cooking was it for me.”

“So cook then.”

“I—no. I can’t. Ever since the channel got deleted, I just—I can’t.”

“I still think you should let me fight it out with YouTube,” Gabriel grumbled, his face pressed into Sam’s shirtfront. “Those assholes—”

“C’mon Gabe, be serious. Even though Raphael is an amazing lawyer, this is YouTube—no, actually Google—that we’re talking about. That’s like trying to take out the Death Star without having the nifty little fire-escape-air vent-shaft-thing to shoot the bomb into. Can’t be done.”

“Yeah, yeah, take the wind out of my sails why don’t you.” Gabriel rolled his eyes dramatically. “Anyway, I mean, why don’t you go back to doing what you love? Nobody cooks like you do, and I’m sort of missing the fancy dinners.” He leaned back to look at Sam, even as the taller man’s gaze darted away and at any other point in the kitchen than Gabriel’s face. A straight up avoidance of eye contact as though it was a matter of life or death.

“I don’t want to. Nothing matters anymore,” Sam whispered, eyes going glassy with the haze of tears as he finally focused on some point over Gabriel’s head.

It was impossible to hide the sadness that flowed out in the form of a long sigh, and Gabriel reached up to cup Sam’s cheeks. Stubble scratched under his palms—when was the last time Sam shaved?—but it didn’t matter, and he pulled the man in for a kiss. Other than the touch of lips, it felt empty, hollow, and devoid of any enthusiasm, and Gabriel’s hands slid to knot around fistfuls of Sam’s hair as he clung desperately to the ghost of the man he’d fallen in love with.

Something had to be done, anything. And it had to be done fast.

===

There had never been an official move in, Gabriel had just sort of gradually started integrating into all the areas of Sam’s apartment. First it was a bag of clothes, then Sam found himself shoving his toiletries over to make room for Gabriel’s toothbrush, razor and shaving cream. One morning, Sam even threw out his coffee maker to free up counter space for Gabriel’s fancy espresso machine. Gabriel had actually spent good money on this particular appliance, and it was only appropriate that it be visible and easily accessible, as Gabriel used it on a regular basis.

Boxes also began to miraculously show up in Sam’s bedroom. Half the clothes in his dresser got moved and were replaced with Gabriel’s boxer briefs, shorts and t-shirts. In the closet next to Sam’s sweaters and button-ups, hung several of Gabriel’s expensive looking suits, dress shirts, and Sam found himself eyeing a tie-ring that looked suspiciously IKEA.

Sam felt Gabriel’s presence all around him; he saw it in the half-opened book of fairy tales on the table on Gabriel’s side of the bed—when did Gabriel even permanently _have_ a side of the bed?—and the dirty sock or shirt that didn’t quite make it to the laundry hamper. Even in the nonchalant toss of the throw blankets over the back of the couch. The tiny pockets of Gabriel made the days more bearable, reminding Sam that the smaller man would be coming back home to him at the end of the day at six o’clock on the dot.

Down the hall, Becky’s room was untouched, minus a few items that she’d come back to collect, such as her laptop and purse. Otherwise, the door remained closed, and Sam firmly ignored all of her calls. Eventually, he’d have to man up and dismantle her room, but that day could wait just a little longer while he tried to figure out how pick up the pieces of his life.

There was a loud hooting sound from the living room—a Great Horned Owl this time, signaling the hour mark. It had been Gabriel’s idea to get a clock that chimed with different bird songs on every hour. It was something that broke up the silence that Sam found himself immersed in every day when Gabriel was at work. Sam knew by the fact it was the owl that it was six o’clock (he’d learned to tell time by which bird noise was happening), but there was no jingle of keys at the door to signify Gabriel’s arrival. Sam frowned, but didn’t dwell as he buried his nose in the tattered copy of _Grimm’s Fairy Tales_ , proceeding to lose himself in the world of witches and magic and houses made of candy and sweets.

At first, Gabriel was only slightly late, coming in at just half-past six. He was always apologetic, quick to temper Sam’s suspicious expression with an explanation that things were really busy at work and that ‘cooking books for the bad boys are no joke!’ But after that initial delay, each week he got a little later, and a little later, until one night he walked through the door just shy of 10pm, and was greeted with a face-full of extremely agitated Sam.

“Busy day at the office again, eh?” Sam’s tone was light, but there was an edge underneath, and the grin didn’t reach his eyes. He sat on the back of the couch, arms crossed with his long legs stretched out in front of him as he faced the door.

“Uh, yeah. Look, I’m sorry, kiddo, I was going to call you.” Gabriel knew his voice was a little too blasé faire, a little too quick.

“Seriously?” Sam pushed off from the couch, using every available inch of his 6-foot-4 frame as he strode towards Gabriel. “When are you gonna stop lying and tell me what’s going on?”

Shit. Gabriel swallowed as he stared up at all that silent fury, and fought the urge to take a step back. Never back down or show weakness. He put his suitcase down on the floor and tugged his tie until it hung loosely around his neck. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sam. I really did have to work—”

“Bullshit.” Sam’s voice was measured, heated, and everything about the way he held his body communicated defensive. “As if I wouldn’t notice you coming home later and later each night.”

“I told you—”

“I called your office.” It was barely a whisper, but it echoed.

The tension skyrocketed.

“You did what? Why would you—I didn’t—“

“Castiel told me that you left work hours ago.” Sam’s voice was equal parts scalding and frigid. “Look, I know you’re sick of me, tired of me moping around this place. I can’t blame you, I would be sick of me too, but that’s not what’s going on. And don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about, because I _know_ , Gabe. Something else is going on, and honestly, if you loved me at all, you’d show me some respect and at least tell me.”

Gabriel kept his mouth shut, his eyes flicking between the clenching of Sam’s fists and the tight, pained expression on his face. Goddamn it. This was so not how it was supposed to go. The piercing cry of the Cuckoo bird signaling ten o’clock from the living room made him jump, and he swore under his breath. He exhaled slowly through his nose.

“You really want to know what’ going on?”

A weighted pause, followed by Sam swallowing. Then— “Yes.” Which was a lie, because Sam didn’t want to know at all. Oftentimes there is only one explanation for someone’s significant other to suddenly and inexplicably start coming home later and later and then lying about it. He didn’t want to hear it because if Gabriel said it, then it would be a reality, and Sam didn’t know if he could handle losing anything else.

“Alright, put on some shoes. We’re going for a walk.”

Wait—what? Sam blinked, not quite registering what Gabriel was saying. When Gabriel shrugged his jacket back on and turned to open the front door, Sam gave himself a mental shake and moved with careful hesitation. He threw on a light jacket, jammed his feet into a pair of sneakers, and stepped out still wearing his sweatpants. Fashion be damned.

Outside, the air was chilly but held the promise of life, that stage just as spring arrives and chases the winter away. The two of them walked down the street in silence, keeping a safe distance as they fell into stride. After a short time later, they arrived at a new store front, the floor-to-ceiling windows still boarded up with a giant sign reading ‘Under Construction’ plastered across the entrance. Gabriel stopped in front of the front door, pausing, and looked at Sam over his shoulder.

“Are you ready?”

“Uh—Honestly, I really don’t know.” Sam frowned in confusion, running a hand distractedly through his hair. This was ridiculous. Surely Gabriel wouldn’t bring him to a boarded up store to break up with him.

“Well, ready or not, here we go.” Gabriel suddenly grinned crookedly, and stuck a key into the lock. The door opened with a whisper—new hinges—and Sam was overwhelmed by the sharp odour of fresh paint. In the dark, Gabriel wandered to the back of the room and flicked a switch, flooding the space with bright fluorescent light.

Sam gaped. What had previously been a large empty space was now filled with ornate tables and chairs, all stacked together in a pile in the middle of the room. There was painter’s tape stuck around the door frame and light fixtures, and the walls were a soft yellow that simultaneously reminded Sam of both Spring and Easter. He took a step forward, over the threshold, and the door swung closed. A large display case spanned halfway across the store, the glass still covered in a protective plastic film, and at the far end where the counter connected to the brick wall, sat a small computer which was also covered in a protective plastic film. A giant piece of cloth hung across the back wall behind the display case, and Sam could make out the edge of a chalkboard where the cloth didn’t quite cover.

“This is—Gabe, what exactly is going on?” He walked further into the space, turning around on the spot as he took in everything again. This hadn’t been how Tricks and Treats was previously set up, even though the space was the same. Where were all the shelves? What was the display case for? It almost looked café-ish, almost like—

Then Gabriel was taking hold of his hand and pulling him. “Come on, I have something else to show you.”

When he entered the backroom, Sam gasped in shock. What had once been a stock room and adjoining office, had been completely gutted and reconfigured into one long room. Sweet Jesus, it was a full sized kitchen. Sam leaned against the door frame for support. Two large industrial size ovens sat against the far back wall, connected to a large working area with stainless steel countertops. A double sink was installed on the side wall, and connected to a steam dishwasher. Directly across from the sink was a four burner gas stove, and next to the stove was—he was dreaming. That was it. Completely and utterly hallucinating.

There was a walk-in pantry and fridge. Not huge, mind, but it was a _walk-in pantry and fridge._  


“Gabe—” Proper communication failed Sam as he walked slowly into the room. “What—?”

“I’ve been working with contractors to get this place fitted.” Gabriel sauntered in and hopped up onto the countertop, his legs dangling as he sat and studied Sam. “Do you like it?”

“Do I like—I can’t even— _how_ —” Sam was rambling and he didn’t even care. He ran his fingers delicately over the smooth finishes of the counters and appliances. He spun to face Gabriel, eyes full of a dozen different emotions. “It’s amazing. Totally amazing. But I still don’t understand…what’s going on?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise, obviously.” Gabriel slid off the counter and faced Sam squarely. “I want us to work together. As partners. We’re gonna take all those recipes you worked on for the book and turn it into a café. This kitchen—” He waved his arms around him “—is going to be our new beginning. Together.”

Sam almost asked Gabriel to pinch him. This wasn’t happening. But it was. _How the hell was this happening._  He gripped Gabriel’s arms, bending at the knees so he could look at the smaller man on the level. “But what about Tricks and Treats—this was your store! It was your dream—”

“No, my dream was _you._  I wanted to open Tricks and Treats as much for _you_  as for myself.” With a contented sigh, Gabriel reached up and pushed a lock of hair back from Sam’s face. “Without you, this could have never happened. So I need you to do this with me. Please. Will you do this with me?”

“Gabe—” Sam swallowed against the lump forming in his throat and blinked through tears that were starting to well. He pulled Gabriel into his chest and held him there, crushing the smaller man against him and trying to convey everything he was suddenly feeling without saying anything.

Gabriel couldn’t breathe properly with Sam’s arms pressing his ribs, and felt the damp spread of tears on his hair, but it didn’t matter. He hugged the taller man back just as hard, rubbing small circles against Sam’s trembling back until he regained some composure. When Sam’s grip loosened enough, Gabriel sucked in a full breath of air and let it out in a huff, looking up at Sam with the smuggest expression he could muster. “So, that’s a yes, then? We’ll charge headfirst into this together?”

“You’re amazing.”

Sam’s hair was a mess, his eyes were red, and he was sniffling, but he was wearing the biggest, happiest grin that Gabriel had ever seen. Gabriel smiled until his own face hurt. “I’ll take that as a yes, then.” It was an affirmation to both of them, an acceptance of each other as they were and of everything they could be together.

===

“By the power vested in me, by way of the internet, because you all know I’m not actually a priest—I pronounce you husband and husband? Is that even right? Whatever! You’re married, so kiss and seal the deal!” Jessica threw her hands up and beamed.

There was a surprisingly deafeningly loud roar from the small crowd gathered, full of clapping and cheering and whistling as Sam grabbed Gabriel with one hand on the nape of his neck and the other across a hip, and dipped him in a dramatic kiss. It was theatrical, and wonderful, and anything but chaste, and just how Gabriel imagined it would be.

When Sam finally brought them back up for air, Gabriel found himself spun around and ensnared in a bone crushing hug from Castiel. “At least you had the decency to look like a blushing bride,” his brother chided playfully.

“Oh, shut up. I’m no blushing bride, I’m lacking oxygen right now!” Gabriel smirked and squeezed Castiel’s arm gently before breaking away and peering around the café fondly. The display case was filled with rows of neatly organized pastries, cookies, cakes, sandwiches and other goodies that Sam had spend all night prepping. The tables and chairs were pushed up against the far wall to make room for the modest ceremony stand that he and Sam had just united upon.

Gabriel’s entire family had turned up, and while they still squabbled, today it was light hearted and in good spirits. Sam’s family had shown too, and although smaller, proved themselves not to be outdone when the cheering started. It didn’t go unnoticed that Castiel affectionately laced fingers with Dean during the vow exchange, and it made Gabriel’s heart swell happily.

The kitchen door swung open, and out came Benny, pushing a trolley with a stunning three-tiered cake. Each level depicted a scene from a fairy tale, and two princes adorned the very top, holding hands as they leaned in.

Sam grabbed Gabriel’s hand and half-dragged the smaller man over to the cake. They held the knife together, and sliced down through the soft, spongy layers as members of both families clapped and snapped photos with cameras and cellphones. It was only after Gabriel had had a handful of cake shoved in his face and everyone was laughing that he noticed an ornate frame propped up next to the  cake with a poem inside it.

“What’s this?” He cocked his head towards it as he licked sticky buttercream off his fingers.

“That, my Angel, is what started it all,” replied Sam with a sly expression and a toothy grin. “Go on, read it.”

And Gabriel did. With each passing word his cheeks grew warmer, and the collar of his shirt felt like it was getting tighter, and quite suddenly, Gabriel was rather glad Sam had never showed him this before they were married. It was an atrocious reminder that Gabriel should never, ever get that spectacularly drunk again. He would have thrown himself off the nearest bridge had he known that he’d made this big a fool of himself back then. Jesus. He coughed, somewhat awkwardly. “Seriously, Sam, you let me near you after this? I would have called the cops.”

“Damned right I did!” The grin on Sam’s face was borderline fiendish as he leaned in and licked a smear of buttercream off Gabriel’s cheek. “I even married you. Oh, and Gabe?”

Gabriel was almost afraid to answer. “Yeah?”

“No regrets!”

Gabriel smiled then, and it was so radiant that it turned his hazel eyes pure gold. He picked up the frame and read the words again, and although it was equally as embarrassing the second time, he felt it was the best piece of literature he’d ever written. Purposefully, he strode over to the cash register and propped the frame next to it, displaying the words for the world to see. He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels as Dean sauntered over with Castiel in tow and squinted at the neat rows of letters.

 

> _Hello you sexy man beast,_
> 
> _That is some fine hair you have there, such majestic, shiny hair. Has anyone ever told you your smile is insanely hot? Like, who said it was okay to have dimples like that? Do you know what those dimples to do people? They should be illegal and locked up and yeah, you know. I think this cake looks delicious, but I think it would be more delicious if you fed it to me, with your mouth, or your fingers, or you know, whichever other way tickled your fancy._
> 
> _But yes, it would be so much more delicious if you fed me with your fingers, I’d suck those fingers clean. Oh yeah. Also why are you so damn tall? I mean if you got hard, is there enough blood to feed your brain or are you in a permanent state of semi asphyxiation? Do you like that kinda thing? I mean, you look pretty vanilla, but I don’t know, can’t judge a book by its cover._
> 
> _Why moose? Are you a moose? You’re big like a moose, are you also passive aggressive like a moose? I mean those fuckers can be pretty crazy scary if you piss them off. Remind me to never piss you off._
> 
> _You probably don’t even know who I am, but I know who you are. You came to my shop, and you bought candy. CANDY. And you’re making cake. I thought you were running some sort of health food shit. Candy and cake is not healthy, you’re totally yanking our chains. How can you stay looking so hot eating so much candy? Like, that shirt is way too short to cover those hip lines, and how the fuck do you get those abs? Like, did God take a golden dump on you? Is that why you’re so fucking perfect?_
> 
> _Anyway, I’m so glad I have spell check, because this message looks pretty damn perfectly spelled to me. I love you, well I hate you, but I love you, fuck you know what I mean._
> 
> _Bye~_
> 
>   
>  _P.S - All this health stuff can’t possibly taste good. I mean, what the fuck is a black bean cake? It even sounds gross. No offense of course. You’re still hot and I still love you._

“Wow. That’s… inspired. But what the actual fuck?” Dean raised both eyebrows at Gabriel incredulously.

“Um, apparently that’s my mating call.” Gabriel bit the inside of his lip to keep from laughing outright, because _seriously_ , as Sam came up behind, enveloping him inside long limbs.

“Whoa—hold up a second. Sam, he _wrote this_  and sent it to you?” The expression on Dean’s face was so comical that Gabriel couldn’t help the snicker that escaped. Based on Sam’s talks about Dean, he hadn’t figured the man for being easily shocked. Dean continued, still in disbelief, “and you _married_  him? Ow!” He winced as Sam socked him in the shoulder.

“Hey, be nice. He’s family now, jerk.” Sam tightened his embrace, pulling Gabriel impossibly close, and planted a feather-light kiss on his cheek.

“Oh, no, this is all the more incentive to abuse him, bitch.” Dean punched Sam back, and winked at Gabriel. “Watch your back, because I got your number now,” he added with a smirk, before leading Castiel away towards the food table. Their shoulders bumped briefly as they walked, and not for the first time that day Gabriel found himself thinking how adorable they were together. He hoped Sam and himself were the same. Craning his head to look at Sam half-upside down, taking in the fondness in those eyes, and the easy grin, he was positive they were.

“I hope you don’t mind me putting that there,” he gestured towards the frame.

“Why would I? This way everyone will know that you came onto me first.” Sam snorted with laughter and nuzzled Gabriel’s hair.

“Oh, thanks. Like that doesn’t make me sound desperate or anything. Jesus.” Gabriel wrinkled his nose and pouted in mock-disgust, sinking back against Sam.

“I love you too, dork.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the last chapter of Sweet Tooth, thanks to EVERYONE that's been SUPER patient with me since last November (holy cow...). I hope this was an enjoyable read at least, as always comments, constructive criticism, anything really is super appreciated! Happy reading!
> 
> Upon request, here's the black been chocolate cake recipe, with icing :D!
> 
> BLACK BEAN CHOCOLATE CAKE with ICING
> 
> Ingredients:
> 
> 1-15 ounce can of unseasoned black beans OR 1 1/2 cup cooked beans, any color  
> 5 large eggs  
> 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract  
> 1/2 teaspoon sea salt  
> 6 tablespoons unsalted organic butter OR coconut oil  
> 1/2 cup of honey   
> 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder  
> 1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder  
> 1/2 teaspoon baking soda  
> Mint Chocolate variation:  
> 2 teaspoons mint extract (in place of 2 teaspoons vanilla)
> 
> Preparation:
> 
> Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
> 
> Spray a 9 cake pan with extra virgin olive oil cooking spray, or just grease it with a thin layer of butter.
> 
> Dust cocoa all over the inside of the pan, tapping to evenly distribute.
> 
> Cut a round of parchment paper and line the bottom of the pan, then spray the parchment lightly.
> 
> Drain and rinse beans in a strainer or colander. Shake off excess water. Place beans, 3 of the eggs, vanilla, and salt into blender. Blend on high until beans are completely liquefied. No lumps! Whisk together cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder.
> 
> Beat butter with honey until light and fluffy.
> 
> Add remaining two eggs, beating for a minute after each addition.
> 
> Pour bean batter into egg mixture and mix.
> 
> Finally, stir in cocoa powder and water (if using), and beat the batter on high for one minute, until smooth. Scrape batter into pan and smooth the top.
> 
> Grip pan firmly by the edges and rap it on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles.
> 
> Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cake is done with the top is rounded and firm to the touch.
> 
> After 10 minutes, turn out cake from pan, and flip over again on to a cooling rack. Let cool until cake reaches room temperature, then cover in plastic wrap or with cake dome (I use an overturned plastic chip bowl). For BEST flavor, let cake sit over night. I promise this cake will not have a hint of beaniness after letting it sit for eight hours! If you are stacking this cake, level the top with a long serrated knife, shaving off layers until it is flat and even. Frost immediately before serving
> 
> Frosting:
> 
> 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted organic butter,  
> 1/4 cup honey  
> 5-6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder  
> 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract  
> Pinch of sea salt  
> Optional addition for a glossy finish:  
> 1 fresh organic egg yolk
> 
> Preparation:
> 
> Cream the butter in a small bowl until fluffy.
> 
> Stir honey into butter with a spatula, then beat until smooth.
> 
> Slowly blend in the cocoa powder (unless you want to redecorate your kitchen), vanilla, and sea salt.
> 
> Beat in the half and half and egg yolk, if using


End file.
